Saxony-Anhalt: SPD wants Merz to visit before the state premier vote
Ahead of the vote for a new state premier in Magdeburg, the SPD is raising pressure on the CDU: no help at all for the AfD, and the chancellor should talk to the state parliamentary group in person.
Symbolic image · Photo: W. Bulach / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Ahead of the upcoming election of Saxony-Anhalt's state premier, the SPD is demanding that the CDU clearly distance itself from the AfD. Bundestag member Rasha Nasr told Der Spiegel that if instructions from the parliamentary group leadership were not enough, the federal CDU had to act. She said she expected "Friedrich Merz to travel to Saxony-Anhalt in person before the state premier vote" and to speak to the entire state parliamentary group.
The background is uncertainty within the CDU group, which had considered leaving the chamber because it could not be sure how some of its own lawmakers would vote. If CDU lawmakers helped elect an AfD state premier, Nasr said, it would be "a political watershed far beyond Saxony-Anhalt" and would "massively damage" trust in the federal coalition partner.
Dirk Wiese, chief whip of the SPD parliamentary group, said: "There must be no cooperation with the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt and no assistance of any kind for it." What happened during the election of the state parliament's president must not be repeated, he said. The AfD became the strongest party in September's state election with 43.8 percent; the reports did not give a date for the state premier vote.