Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state elects AfD parliament speaker in historic vote

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) now has a state parliament speaker, the first time a far-right party has captured such a position in the nation’s post-World War II history, media reports said Tuesday.

The state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt elected 35-year-old Tobias Rausch to its highest office in the first round of voting. In the balloting in the eastern city of Magdeburg, he got 48 votes of state parliamentarians in favor, versus 29 against, and five abstentions.

The AfD won a plurality in the Sept. 6 state election with 43.8% of the vote, but fell short of an absolute majority. The left populist BSW, which is represented by five members in the state legislature, had agreed in advance to support Rausch’s election, citing the tradition that the party with the most seats should get the seat.

Together, the AfD and BSW caucuses have 44 members. However, the election was held by secret ballot.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, has classified the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt as a confirmed far-right extremist group.

The election of an AfD state parliament speaker president drew criticism in advance, with the Social Democrats, the Greens, and The Left all announcing that they would vote against his taking the post.

The caucus leadership of Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) recommended that its members abstain from the vote. During the previous legislative term, various AfD candidates for the vice parliament speaker position repeatedly failed to win the vote, and the post stayed vacant.

Hundreds protest against AfD taking position

Even before the opening session of the state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt began, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the parliament building in Magdeburg, chanting “Nazis out,” according to the German Press Agency (dpa).

Protesters held up banners saying “No cooperation with right-wing extremists” and “Never again fascism.”

The rally was primarily directed against the election of an AfD state parliament speaker.