The anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken control of a state parliament for the first time in its history this week, following a historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt last month.
In a secret ballot, AfD parliamentary group leader Tobias Rausch was selected as President of the Landtag (Parliament) of Saxony-Anhalt this week, marking the first time an AfD politician has served as the presiding officer of a German state parliament, NTV reported. It came after the nationalist-sovereigntist party came out on top in the state’s elections last month, securing 39 of the 83 seats in the local parliament.
Intriguingly, while the left-wing populist BSW (Citizens’ Initiative for Social Justice) party committed its five votes to Rausch, putting him at 44 votes, the AfD leader ultimately secured 48 votes, suggesting that other parliamentarians broke ranks with their own party to back the AfD leader on Tuesday. Given the other leftist parties’ antipathy toward the anti-mass-migration party, the extra four votes possibly came from members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the centre-right party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Merz, whose popularity has fallen to record lows, tried to save face on Wednesday by claiming another party could have voted for the AfD, while realising that the CDU would likely be held responsible.
“We don’t know who the AfD candidate received his votes from overall,” Merz said. “False flag operations aren’t just a military tactic; they exist in politics as well, so we should be careful about jumping to conclusions”.
If the votes had come from CDU members, it would have represented an albeit clandestine breach of the so-called cordon sanitaire firewall policy of the former Merkel party against working with the AfD, which was set in place as the establishment deems the party outside the boundaries of acceptability.
CDU Vice Chairwoman Karin Prien said that “if it was colleagues from the CDU state parliamentary group, then that is, of course, completely unacceptable,” adding that her party has “clear resolutions” on prohibiting cooperation with the AfD.
Regardless, the successful selection of Rausch as the head of the state parliament bodes well for the AfD as it looks to form its first state government in December. The lead candidate during last month’s elections, Ulrich Siegmund, said that he viewed the vote this week as a dress rehearsal and a “good sign” for his own run to become Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister-President, the rough equivalent to a governor in the United States.
Siegmund, who has been dubbed by Berlin legacy media outlet Der Spiegel as Germany’s “most dangerous” politician and who has been tipped as a potential chancellor candidate for the AfD, has said that he will not run again if he fails to secure enough votes for a majoirty in the first round in Decemeber.
Though he already has enough votes in the Landtag between the 39 AfD and five BSW lawmakers, the apparent rift within the CDU may serve to bolster Siegmund even further.
Should the party openly split at the CDU state party conference in December between those willing to work with the AfD and those who demand the firewall remain intact, defections may be on the cards, potentially meaning that the AfD would not need to rely on the left-wing BSW to form a government in the state.
How well the AfD performs in its role of leading a state parliament and state government will be a major test for the party as it seeks to dethrone the Berlin establishment parties and win the next general election.
Up until now, the party has essentially been relegated to the opposition benches. Even so, a clear runway has seen the party entrench itself as by far the most popular political party in Germany, with its lead continuing to grow.
Indeed, a survey this week from Insa found that the AfD has surpassed the symbolically significant threshold of 30 per cent, reaching 30.5 per cent support. This would give the AfD a 13-point lead over the combined forces of the governing Christian Democrats and their CSU partners in Bavaria.
While the German people are increasingly willing to lend the AfD their vote, the legacy establishment is proving willing to obstruct the party’s progress, even when it has a democratic mandate. The government is already preparing to block future AfD state governments from being able to rule effectively by withholding Federal information from them that state leaders normally get, and the longstanding unanimity rule that protects individual states from being railroaded by others has been scrapped in recent days, openly damaging Germany’s democratic norms purely as a means to confound the AfD.
Some businesses are even getting in on the act. German car giant BMW has long provided not just leased fleet vehicles for the Saxony-Anhalt state government, but the official limousine of the President of the State Parliament too. On Friday the company suddenly withdrew the service, meaning newly elected Rausch must find his own vehicle, leading to the AfD party reaching out directly to Elon Musk for a Tesla.
German newspaper Die Welt notes the withdrawal of the BMW 7 Series luxury sedan came just days after the CEO of the car maker called the AfD “poison”.
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