Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the CDU criticized the election of Tobias Rausch, an AfD politician, as the President of the State Parliament in Magdeburg. Speaking on Wednesday at an event hosted by “Handelsblatt” and “Wirtschaftswoche” in Berlin, Merz stated that supporting the AfD involves engaging in the “game of the extremists” and undermines credibility. He added that such an action is incompatible with the values of his party, the CDU.
Rausch won the secret ballot held on Tuesday with 48 out of 82 votes cast. The AfD holds 39 seats in the State Parliament, and the BSW, which had previously announced support for Rausch, holds 5 seats. These figures account for 44 votes combined.
Merz did not clarify the source of the remaining four votes, directing that this must be sorted out locally. Concurrently, he stressed that anyone who elects a representative from a far-right party to the State Parliament Presidency must do so with their conscience clear.
The CDU leader did not announce specific punitive measures. However, he recalled that in 2021, he had warned “Der Spiegel” that if “anyone of ours raised their hand to cooperate with the AfD,” a party expulsion process would begin the following day.
Merz cautioned against equating the events in Magdeburg with current discussions in Berlin regarding a potential government coalition involving the SPD, the Greens, and the Left Party. He asserted, “We should not pit these two events against each other or directly compare them. There are too many differences between them.”
Nevertheless, Merz urged the SPD and the Greens to prevent the Left Party from taking power in the capital. He appealed to the parties in the political center to uphold their responsibility by ensuring that the majority does not allow the Left to form a Governing Mayoralty in Berlin. In Berlin, the CDU, Greens, and SPD collectively hold a slim majority with 82 out of 158 seats.
