Schulze rules out seeking AfD or Left Party votes as former CDU leaders warn against toleration ahead of Saxony-Anhalt election

Schulze draws red lines on TV

In a ZDF "Markus Lanz" appearance on Tuesday evening, Saxony-Anhalt's Minister-President Sven Schulze (CDU) ruled out seeking votes from either the AfD or Die Linke after the state election on 6 September. "I will not go to the AfD or the Left Party and ask for votes," he said. He added that he would not make himself dependent on either party.

I will not make myself dependent on the AfD or the Left Party.

Schulze also called AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund a "puppet" of party leader Alice Weidel and dismissed Siegmund's proposal to solve the skilled-worker shortage by luring back Germans living abroad. Saxony-Anhalt, he said, needs foreign skilled workers because of its low birth rate.

Polling points to a fragmented parliament

The latest polls put the AfD at 41 percent, far ahead of Schulze's CDU at 26 percent. Die Linke stands at 12 percent and the SPD at 7 percent. Neither the BSW nor the Greens would clear the threshold to enter the state parliament, and the FDP, currently part of the governing coalition, is not listed separately and would likely lose its seats. The current CDU-SPD-FDP coalition would therefore lose its majority.

If no majority emerges from the centre, Schulze said, "there will probably be no election of a minister-president in Saxony-Anhalt for a longer period." The state constitution sets no deadline for the vote, meaning the incumbent government could remain in office as a caretaker for an extended time.

Former CDU leaders issue an open letter

Two former CDU state chairs, Karl-Heinz Daehre and Gerd Gies, published an open letter warning Schulze against allowing a minority government to be tolerated by Die Linke. The CDU would "sink into insignificance" in such a scenario, they wrote. Gies was Saxony-Anhalt's first post-reunification minister-president; Daehre served as transport minister for many years.

We didn't take to the streets in 1989 so that the Left could now come back to power.

Daehre told dpa that even case-by-case cooperation with the Left would tear the CDU apart. The letter invokes the "Magdeburg Model" of 1994 to 2002, when an SPD-led minority government was tolerated by the PDS, the successor to the SED. That period, the authors say, was devastating and left Saxony-Anhalt with the "red lantern" nationwide.

No deadline, no rush

Because the 2020 parliamentary reform removed the 14-day deadline for electing a minister-president, a prolonged caretaker government is legally possible. Schulze said he is not currently considering scenarios involving toleration. "I have no intention of dealing with such topics now," he said, adding that the election result must come first.

Reactions and the Saxony comparison

The BSW accused Schulze of arrogance, saying his remarks revealed a lust for power and a questionable understanding of democracy. Meanwhile, Spiegel journalist Sabine Rennefanz suggested that a case-by-case cooperation between the CDU and the Left Party could be reasonable, despite the official incompatibility resolution. In neighbouring Saxony, the CDU has led a minority government with the SPD since 2024, with Minister-President Michael Kretschmer occasionally relying on votes from the BSW.