Saxony-Anhalt Landtag adopts AfD and BSW motion to suspend Ukraine arms aid

Motion calls for an end to Ukraine aid

The Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt adopted a motion from the AfD and the BSW at a special session in Magdeburg on Wednesday, 14 October, with the votes of the two parties. The motion is titled "Friedensgespräche statt Ausweitung des Krieges in der Ukraine" (peace talks instead of widening the war in Ukraine). It asks the state government to use every available means, especially an initiative in the Bundesrat, to prevent further escalation and to focus on diplomacy. CDU, SPD, Greens and Left voted against it, and there were no abstentions.

The text also demands that economic sanctions against Russia be lifted immediately, that financial support for Ukraine beyond humanitarian aid be stopped at once, and that arms deliveries be suspended. It further states that the Landtag should find that the sanctions policy and the arms and financial aid to Ukraine have failed.

Government and CDU reaction

Acting Minister-President Sven Schulze (CDU) condemned the motion in sharp terms. In his speech he called it a "Brautgeschenk an das BSW", a bridal gift to the BSW, pointing to the Minister-President election planned for December, and he described the debate as a "Show". Asked whether benefits for Ukrainians should be adjusted, Schulze said the rules should be set up differently. He said talks between the states and the federal government were under way, that the current framework conditions were not acceptable, and that he strongly supported a Rechtskreiswechsel.

CDU member Sven Ruhland accused the AfD of leaving out Russia's responsibility for the war.

Nobody in this house wants war. Nobody wants a single person to die in Ukraine or Russia.

Ruhland also noted that the motion nowhere says who started the war. He argued that Moscow only wants the weapons to fall silent once it has forced further concessions, and he pointed to further trilateral talks in October.

Procedural clash before the debate

The session opened with an interruption requested by several factions, and the Ältestenrat, which had not been convened beforehand, came together. Eva von Angern, leader of the Left faction, then accused the new Landtag president Tobias Rausch of abusing his office in favour of one or two factions.

It is not without reason that there has been repeated outcry in recent days that you, Mr Rausch, misuse your office one-sidedly in favour of one or two factions.

The Greens' parliamentary business manager Olaf Meister said the debate should have been about speaking time, but he also raised the commemoration of the attack on the synagogue in Halle. There, members of the Jewish Student Union formed a human chain that denied Vice President Hans-Thomas Tillschneider access to the synagogue. Von Angern called sending Tillschneider, whom she described as a hardliner in the AfD, "a deliberate provocation". Meister also pointed to a Landtag press release that was almost word for word the same as an AfD statement, and said:

That is a serious violation of the neutrality requirement.

Rausch's Compact speech and dual role

Meister cited a speech Rausch gave to the far-right magazine Compact, which published a 26-minute video of it. In the video Rausch said the session would be run without the colleague from the CDU. Under the Landtag's rules of procedure, the president is obliged to chair sessions impartially. Meister also criticised that Rausch remains parliamentary business manager alongside his presidency. He argued that a business manager presents the position of his own faction, while the president must do the opposite, so the two offices cannot be reconciled.