Germany's AfD Poised to Preside over State Assembly for First Time
The party won backing from the BSW and drew protests as lawmakers prepared to choose a speaker for the first time.
- On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, the far-right Alternative for Germany elected Tobias Rausch as speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament, marking the first time a far-right party has held the post in Germany since World War Two.
- Following the AfD's September 6 election victory with nearly 44 percent of the vote, the party secured 39 of 83 seats, necessitating support from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance to achieve the speakership majority.
- Rausch secured 48 votes in Tuesday's secret ballot, drawing support from the AfD's 39 deputies, 5 BSW members, and 4 additional lawmakers; about 500 protesters gathered outside the Magdeburg parliament building opposing the shift.
- Rejecting the post-war consensus against working with the far right, Rausch said, "The days of political firewalls should be a thing of the past," as other parties expressed alarm at the historic shift.
- AfD leader Ulrich Siegmund aims to leverage this breakthrough to win election as state premier in December, a move the BSW may facilitate by prioritizing policy substance over the firewall isolating the far-right party.
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277 Articles
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Shin-young = For the first time since World War II, a chairman from a far-right party has been elected in a German state parliament.
MPs from the populist left-wing BSW-Alliance Sarah Wagenknecht broke the wall of exclusion in the AfD. And gave the far-right candidate the votes he needed to be elected president of the parliament in Saxony-Anhalt. The post Saxony-Anhalt: Parliament elected the first far-right presidency in Germany – With votes from Wagenknecht appeared first on in.gr.
It is the first time since the Second World War that a far-right politician holds a position like this. Rausch is given, among other things, the authority to determine who is and is not allowed into the parliament building.
Tobias Rausch of the Afd elected to lead the assembly in Saxony-Anhalt. Thanks also to the votes of the Rossobruni of Sahra Wagenknecht and some refugees of the Cdu
The role of the President is to lead parliamentary meetings in the "Council of Wise Men" which sets the agenda and discusses procedural issues.
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