Saxony-Anhalt: AfD offers BSW chair of state parliament's education committee
The far-right AfD wants to hand one of its committee chairs in the Magdeburg legislature to the BSW. The two parties are in talks on backing an AfD-led minority government.
Archive image · Photo: Torsten Maue / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) are moving closer in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD plans to give the BSW the chair of the state parliament's education committee, according to parliament president Tobias Rausch of the AfD. A BSW spokesperson confirmed to the German Press Agency that the party is set to receive a chair. The AfD's parliamentary group still has to approve the move, possibly at a meeting on Oct. 14.
Normally the BSW would not be entitled to a committee chair: with five of 83 lawmakers it is the smallest group, having won 5.3% of the vote. The AfD secured six committee chairs in the parliament's council of elders. It won the state election just over a month ago with 43.8% and 39 seats but fell short of an absolute majority.
The AfD and BSW are holding exploratory talks on policies an AfD-led minority government would have to implement. The BSW rules out a coalition and plans to abstain in the vote for state premier scheduled for December, a post sought by AfD state leader Ulrich Siegmund. Rausch was elected parliament president with 48 votes, four more than the combined seats of the AfD and BSW.