Far-Right AfD Member Installed as Speaker of Saxony-Anhalt Parliament Amid Backlash
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Tobias Rausch of the extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) was elected speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt parliament, enabled by the populist BSW party. This marks a dangerous first: a far-right party now holds a key leadership role in a German state parliament. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned that unchecked climate change could worsen global instability and fuel extremism.
In a deeply troubling development for German democracy, Tobias Rausch, 35, of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), was elected speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament on Tuesday. Rausch received 48 votes in favour and 29 against in a secret ballot of 82 members, with five abstentions. The AfD, notorious for its xenophobic and extremist positions, holds 39 seats and was able to secure the post thanks to the opportunistic support of the five-member BSW party. This maneuver allowed Rausch to claim a majority, despite principled opposition from the CDU, SPD, Greens, and Left, all of whom have pledged not to cooperate with the AfD due to its extremist nature.
This election marks the first time a member of the AfD – officially classified by Saxony-Anhalt’s domestic intelligence as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization – has been elevated to the speaker’s position in any German state parliament. The session was met with justified anti-AfD protests outside the parliament building, as citizens voiced their alarm at the normalization of far-right politics.
"The BSW has made a conscious decision to elect, for the first time since 1945, a politician from a far-right party to the leadership of a German parliament," SPD general secretary Tim Klüssendorf said, demanding accountability from the CDU regarding its members’ votes.
"We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated, and we will not sit by when rights here or those of the people in this state are to be curtailed," Greens leader Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz declared, condemning the election as a dangerous crossing of a democratic “border.”
In a related development, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, speaking at the Berlin Climate and Security Conference, warned that climate change threatens to deepen poverty and hunger in fragile states, creating fertile ground for extremism and forced migration. He stressed that investing in renewable energy and climate protection is not only a moral imperative but also essential for national and global security.