A report by “taz” suggests that several CDU deputies in the Saxon-Anhalt state parliament may have misrepresented their voting behaviour during the election of Tobias Rausch, an AfD politician, as the parliament president. The newspaper made inquiries to all CDU members regarding how they voted.
Eight CDU deputies told “taz” that they had abstained from voting, a claim that contradicted the actual count of abstentions by three votes. This implies that at least three of the CDU deputies must have been stating untruths.
Tobias Rausch was successfully elected to office on Tuesday with 48 votes in the parliament. However, the majority support from the BSW and AfD combined only reached 44 votes, meaning that at least four additional votes must have come from other parties. Prior to and after the election, the AfD had suggested that arrangements had been made with certain CDU deputies.
Sven Schulze, the head of the CDU parliamentary group, had recommended to his members that they abstain from the vote for Rausch; however, only five abstentions were recorded in the end. The eight deputies who told “taz” they abstained are Chris Schulenburg, Guido Heuer, Lars-Jörn Zimmer, Daniel Sturm, Marco Tullner, Stefan Ruland, Karin Tschernich-Weiske, and Carsten Borchert. According to the newspaper, these individuals confirmed their abstention either orally on the day of the election or in writing or over the phone in the following days.
The CDU members Ulrich Thomas and René Barthel did not respond to inquiries. Additionally, four deputies reported voting “No” on the motion: Sven Schulze, Sandra Hietel-Heuer, Tobias Krull, and Tim Teßmann. Frank Bommersbach was absent from the vote due to illness. The CDU parliamentary group consists of 15 deputies in total.
Furthermore, all CDU deputies who responded to the newspaper stated that they voted “No” in the election of Hans-Thomas Tillschneider (AfD) as vice-parliament president. Regarding Tillschneider’s election, it is still possible that the missing votes came from the BSW. The AfD garnered only 39 votes, but when combined with the 5 votes from the BSW, the total exactly reached the 44 votes Tillschneider received.
