Catarina dos Santos-Wintz, the First Parliamentary Group Leader for the Union faction in the Bundestag (CDU), has redirected the responsibility for investigating the election of the AfD Landtag President in Saxony-Anhalt to the respective state parliamentary factions.Speaking to RTL and ntv on Wednesday, dos Santos-Wintz asserted that clarifying this matter falls within the domain of state parliament factions, not as a federal politician. She emphasized that it was not her role to drive this inquiry forward. According to her, the CDU parliamentary group had clearly announced before the election that members would either vote no or abstain. She stated that any members who deviated from this stance needed to seriously interrogate themselves and consider how such a decision could align with their conscience, stating unequivocally that she could not make such a choice.
She firmly dismissed the accusation that the Union helped an AfD politician reach the top of the state parliament. She stressed the need to “rigidly” reject this idea. She confirmed that the election was conducted secretly, and she did not know the source of the votes, the CDU politician added.
However, dos Santos-Wintz did not demand specific consequences for individual legislators, such as exclusion from the faction. Instead, she expressed absolute confidence that both the state parliament faction and Sven Schulze would maintain good communication with the members. She further expressed that she had no doubts this would play out in that manner. When questioned about whether dissenting members of the Union could remain in the party, she avoided a direct answer, once again appealing to the democratic nature of the secret ballot.
Furthermore, the CDU politician ruled out the possibility that AfD politician Ulrich Siegmund would receive votes from the Union during the Minister-President election in Saxony-Anhalt in December. She stated that she was aware from the state parliamentary factions and the state party that this would not happen, and on that basis, she relied. She also noted that the election of Rausch as Landtag President would not alter the party’s course. For her, it was completely clear: they had a decision of incompatibility, and that decision would remain in effect.
