The BSW party in Saxony-Anhalt has reaffirmed its decision not to support Ulrich Siegmund in the planned Minister-President election in December. Claudia Wittig, deputy faction leader for the BSW, told The Welt that there will be no coalition involving BSW votes for Siegmund; “He has to get those from the CDU.”
Despite this, BSW and the AfD plan to initiate discussions in the coming weeks regarding potential cooperation. According to Wittig, they aim to talk about “concrete projects.” Specifically, the BSW politician highlighted major demands, such as comprehensive school reform to address teacher shortages by recruiting teacher trainees or implementing a regional teacher stipend, similar to the specialist physician quota. BSW argues that “longer joint learning” is necessary to eliminate social segregation and ensure educational success does not depend solely on the parents’ income.
However, Wittig rejected the AfD’s calls for “Remigration,” stating unequivocally that the parties would not support those ideas and that “she won’t secure majorities with us on that.” She added that, thus far, the talks have been “issue-based and productive,” noting that the AfD is already aware of BSW’s strict boundaries.
A point of potential agreement is the call for a Corona inquiry committee. Furthermore, Wittig noted that the BSW shares the AfD’s analysis regarding the state media contract. They both argue that public broadcasters fail to represent the full spectrum of opinion. She critiqued the current system, stating that reporting is often biased, programming is dominated by Western viewpoints, and that the Eastern regions are poorly represented. Wittig also pointed to the high salaries of managing directors, which she claimed consumed too much funding. To fix this, she asserted the need for “more critical reporting under fixed employment contracts” and a reduction in managing director pay.
