Heuer breaks ranks on the boycott

The CDU parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt agreed last week to leave the plenary hall during the first two ballots of the minister-president election in December, when AfD politician Ulrich Siegmund runs for the post. Guido Heuer, a 59-year-old CDU member of the state parliament, told the portal Nius that he will stay in the chamber. Faction chief Sven Schulze had already said when the plan was announced that Heuer was the only member who had not agreed to it, and that Heuer wanted to seek legal advice again. Heuer told the right-populist portal in a long interview:

“I personally have come to the decision that I will not leave the chamber.”

What Heuer will not say

Heuer declined to say how he will vote, both before and after a secret ballot. He ruled out a coalition with the AfD and any toleration of it, but said a minority government should not be taboo and that the CDU must be able to work with changing majorities on policy questions. In comments to WELT he said the firewall against the AfD had failed, while holding that the party's red lines are Russia, NATO and the preservation of the EU and the euro. He dismissed the row over the election of AfD politician Tobias Rausch as president of the state assembly in early October, when Rausch received four more votes than AfD and BSW have members combined. Because the ballot was secret, he said, it would be impossible to find out who cast those votes, and he argued that the CDU should examine why it has a credibility problem with the public.

Divisions inside the CDU group

MDR reported last week that several members were weighing a split from the faction to form their own parliamentary group, and it named former education minister Marco Tullner among them. The same report said calls had been made for Schulze to step down as faction leader. Schulze has said the CDU group intends to take part in a possible third ballot if other factions are allowed to nominate candidates, while the first and second ballots each require an absolute majority. Heuer's refusal to join the walkout adds to a group already split over its leadership.

Leadership contest and the new party line

Heuer led the group from 2022 until September, when he lost a leadership vote to Schulze by seven votes to eight, after the AfD had clearly won the state election on 6 September. Heuer now calls for a "personnel and thematic new start" in the state party and backs Bundestag member Sepp Müller as the new state chair. He said the poll numbers of Chancellor Friedrich Merz are known and that support from Berlin had not been a tailwind, but added that it is not up to him to point only at Berlin.

Heuer7

Schulze8

Heuer

7 votes

Schulze

8 votes

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