Saxony-Anhalt CDU leadership steps down after election defeat as Sepp Müller bids for party chair

Leadership resignation following election loss

The state leadership of the Christian Democratic Union in Saxony-Anhalt collectively offered their resignations on Monday evening following the state parliament election. Minister-President Sven Schulze, who led the party campaign as top candidate, announced the decision after a meeting of the state executive board in Magdeburg. The party fell from 37.1% in the 2021 election to 17.2% on Sunday, while the Alternative for Germany (AfD) finished first with 43.8% of the vote.

Schulze stated that he does not plan to run for the state chairmanship again at a special party conference scheduled for late November or early December. State general secretary Mario Kaschunke also confirmed that he will not seek another term on the executive board.

We as the CDU no longer have a mandate to govern, we are the opposition. The mandate to govern now lies with the AfD.

Internal fallout and Sepp Müller candidacy

Following the executive board meeting in Magdeburg, 37-year-old Bundestag member Sepp Müller announced his intention to succeed Schulze. Müller serves as deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the federal parliament.

I am running for state chairman.

Müller faces scrutiny over comments made during the final days of the campaign. On 4 September, during an appearance on the Politico podcast Berlin Playbook, Müller stated that if polling numbers translated into election results, AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund would have a mandate to form a government. Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Müller during a press conference in Berlin on Monday following meetings of the federal party leadership.

Nobody among us understood why, a few days before the election date, a deputy chairman of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag stabs his own lead candidate in the back in the way that happened from three days before the election right through to yesterday.

Unionsfraktion leader Thorsten Frei also rebuked the timing of Müller's remarks, stating before a caucus meeting that making such comments two days before an election was problematic and not seen as campaign support by Schulze or the state party.

Parliament restructuring and succession debate

The election outcome reduced the CDU faction in the Saxony-Anhalt Landtag from 40 to 15 lawmakers. André Schröder, the district administrator of Mansfeld-Südharz and a former state finance minister who stepped down in 2019 following a faction dispute, is also viewed within the party as a potential leadership candidate.

The reduced state parliamentary group is scheduled to meet on Tuesday. Faction members face a potential vote for the group leadership between incumbent Guido Heuer and Harz lawmaker Ulrich Thomas. The caucus will also select a new parliamentary managing director after incumbent Andreas Schumann failed to win re-election to the state parliament. Meanwhile, the Junge Union in Saxony-Anhalt and former education minister Eva Feußner had publicly demanded a complete reshuffle of the party leadership in the hours immediately following Sunday's vote.