AfD lawmaker Tobias Rausch elected president of Saxony-Anhalt state parliament

Election of Tobias Rausch

Lawmakers in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt elected Tobias Rausch of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as parliamentary president during their constituent session in Magdeburg. Rausch, a lawmaker from Staßfurt who previously worked as the AfD faction's parliamentary manager, secured 48 votes in the secret ballot. A total of 29 lawmakers voted against him and five abstained, with 82 of the 83 members of parliament casting votes. The vote places an AfD politician at the head of a German state parliament for the first time since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. The regional intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, classifies the AfD state association in Saxony-Anhalt as confirmed right-wing extremist. Eva von Angern of Die Linke, acting as Alterspräsidentin to open the inaugural proceedings, announced the result to the chamber.

You have been elected President of the State Parliament and I congratulate you on that.

Ballots for the presidium

The parliament proceeded to vote on deputy presiding positions, producing divergent outcomes across party lines. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider of the AfD won election as the first vice president with 44 votes in favour. Following that vote, the SPD and Die Linke temporarily withdrew their nominees, leaving Carsten Borchert of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as the sole candidate for the second vice-presidency. Borchert secured the post with 64 affirmative votes against 17 opposing votes. The third deputy seat remains unfilled after Armin Willingmann of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) failed to achieve a majority. Willingmann, the 63-year-old outgoing state minister for science and energy, received 33 votes in favour, 48 votes against, and one invalid ballot.

Scrutiny of the vote count

The mathematics of the secret ballot generated immediate scrutiny over caucus compliance. The AfD controls 39 seats in the Landtag, while the five lawmakers of Bündnis Soziale Gerechtigkeit und Wirtschaftliche Vernunft (BSW) had pledged to back Rausch, yielding 44 votes from their combined presence. Rausch received four votes beyond that total. Sven Schulze, the CDU state parliamentary leader and outgoing minister-president, had directed his 14 party legislators to abstain. Only five total abstentions were registered across the 82 participating members. Schulze stated that his caucus had voted internally against Tillschneider, while reporting by Die Zeit, citing AfD circles, referenced private understandings regarding mutual support for Borchert.

National political reactions

The outcome prompted immediate criticism from federal politicians in Berlin. Heidi Reichinnek, co-leader of Die Linke in the Bundestag, stated that the extra votes for Rausch came from the CDU and criticized the decision to abstain.

Whoever abstains against this background has no backbone. Whoever gives their vote to a right-wing extremist has lost every right to call themselves a democrat.

Thorsten Frei, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, dismissed allegations of CDU collusion as speculation while acknowledging concern regarding the vote count.

The fact that this is the case is, in my view, highly concerning and worrying.

Before the session, approximately 500 demonstrators gathered on Magdeburg Cathedral Square to oppose cooperation with the AfD, while AfD faction leader Ulrich Siegmund spoke to protesters outside the security perimeter. Siegmund stated that he plans to seek election as state minister-president when the Landtag convenes for a government vote in December 2026.