Saxony-Anhalt: BSW says it has a candidate for a non-partisan premier
BSW group co-leader Claudia Wittig will back neither Schulze (CDU) nor Siegmund (AfD) as state premier – and floats an unnamed non-partisan figure instead.
Archive image · Photo: Wolfgang Pehlemann Germany / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
In the deadlocked struggle to form a government in Saxony-Anhalt, the BSW is proposing a non-partisan state premier. Claudia Wittig, co-leader of the BSW group in the state parliament, said in a podcast by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung and Volksstimme that her party had already approached a possible candidate who is in principle available. “We would have someone,” Wittig said, without giving a name. What matters, she said, is a figure “trusted to bring these camps together” – acceptable both to the AfD camp and to the other parties.
Wittig reaffirmed that the BSW would support neither of the existing contenders: “We have said we would support neither Sven Schulze as premier nor Ulrich Siegmund.” In such a vote, the group would abstain. The BSW is open to talks with the AfD but rules out a coalition or electing an AfD premier. “We want to decide policy on the merits, with shifting majorities,” she said, rejecting speculation about a change of course. The AfD came first in the state election in September.