Frankfurt (Germany), 6 Oct. (LaPresse) – For the first time, a member of the AfD has been elected president of a German state parliament. Thomas Rausch, aged 35, was elected as the new president of the Saxony-Anhalt Landtag with 48 votes in favour and 29 against. Five members abstained. Rausch received four more votes than the 44 he had been expected to secure the day before, indicating that at least four members from other parties voted in his favour in the secret ballot. The BSW, which holds five seats, had officially announced its support for the AfD candidate. The leadership of the CDU parliamentary group, however, had recommended that its 15 MPs abstain; one of the Christian Democrat MPs was absent at the time of the vote. The SPD, the Greens and Die Linke, each with eight MPs, had announced they would vote against him. Demonstrations against the election of the AfD representative took place outside the Landtag in Magdeburg, with politicians from Die Linke and the Greens also taking part. In his first speech as President, Rausch assured that he intended to carry out his duties not as a representative of a parliamentary group, “but as President of the entire Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt”. “I am here today with great gratitude, but above all with great respect for this role,” he said. “We are not here for our own sake; our positions are not honours. It is the people who have sent us here,” added Rausch, calling for a “tough but fair” political debate and respect for parliamentary rules. The new president of the Landtag also spoke out against the so-called ‘Brandmauer’ – the cordon sanitaire through which the other parties exclude cooperation with the AfD – arguing that it must be overcome.
Germany: AfD candidate elected President of the Saxony-Anhalt Parliament
Frankfurt (Germany), 6 Oct. (LaPresse) – For the first time, a member of the AfD has been elected president of a German state parliament. Thomas Rausch, aged 35, was elected as the new president of the Saxony-Anhalt Landtag with 48 votes in favour and 29 against. Five members abstained. Rausch received four more votes than the 44 he had been expected to secure the day before, indicating that at least four members from other parties voted in his favour in the secret ballot. The BSW, which holds five seats, had officially announced its support for the AfD candidate. The leadership of the CDU parliamentary group, however, had recommended that its 15 MPs abstain; one of the Christian Democrat MPs was absent at the time of the vote. The SPD, the Greens and Die Linke, each with eight MPs, had announced they would vote against him. Demonstrations against the election of the AfD representative took place outside the Landtag in Magdeburg, with politicians from Die Linke and the Greens also taking part. In his first speech as President, Rausch assured that he intended to carry out his duties not as a representative of a parliamentary group, “but as President of the entire Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt”. “I am here today with great gratitude, but above all with great respect for this role,” he said. “We are not here for our own sake; our positions are not honours. It is the people who have sent us here,” added Rausch, calling for a “tough but fair” political debate and respect for parliamentary rules. The new president of the Landtag also spoke out against the so-called ‘Brandmauer’ – the cordon sanitaire through which the other parties exclude cooperation with the AfD – arguing that it must be overcome.