Saxony-Anhalt: CDU group to decide on walkout during vote on AfD's Siegmund
The 15 CDU lawmakers are to leave the chamber during December's vote for state premier, so that no one can accuse them of backing AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund.
Symbolic image · Photo: Olaf Kosinsky / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
The CDU group in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament votes on Tuesday on an unusual proposal: its 15 members would jointly leave the chamber before the vote when the state premier is elected in December. The group's leadership under Sven Schulze made the proposal, dpa and Berliner Zeitung reported. Ulrich Siegmund, lead candidate of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), intends to stand. Schulze and parliamentary manager Stefan Ruland again ruled out supporting an AfD candidate.
The background is last week's election of Tobias Rausch (AfD) as parliament president. He received 48 votes in favour, although the AfD and the BSW together have only 44 lawmakers. According to dpa, Rausch confirmed that CDU lawmakers had also voted for him and said the same four votes for Siegmund in the premier election had been "agreed". The CDU had recommended abstaining, but there were only five abstentions in the secret ballot.
The idea came from Bundestag member Sepp Müller, who wants to become the CDU's state chairman in early December. "Whoever does not cast a ballot cannot be accused of anything afterwards," he said. According to Berliner Zeitung, his proposal foresees the group returning for a possible third round and voting no, because a simple majority would then suffice.