Tobias Rausch elected Landtag president in Saxony-Anhalt (AfD)

For the first time in Germany's post-reunification history, Alternative for Germany (AfD) has gained the presidency of a state parliament: 35-year-old Tobias Rausch was elected speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt Landtag in Magdeburg in the first round of voting.

At the ballot, Rausch received 48 votes in favour, while 29 deputies voted against him and five abstained, figures that the assembly's oldest member, Eva von Angern, announced after the count.

AfD won the state election held on 6 September with 43.8% of the vote but fell short of an absolute majority. The parliamentary group of Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), which holds five seats, had pledged to support Rausch’s candidacy. By convention the largest parliamentary group proposes the president, and together AfD and BSW control 44 seats. The vote was conducted by secret ballot.

Controversy and party responses

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified AfD in Saxony-Anhalt as a proven right-wing extremist organization, and that designation intensified criticism of Rausch’s potential elevation before the vote. The Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and The Left announced they would vote against; the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leadership recommended its deputies abstain. In the previous parliamentary term several AfD candidates for vice-president failed to secure enough support and the post remained unfilled.

Rausch has been a member of the state parliament since 2016, works as a real-estate agent and was unanimously nominated by his parliamentary group. He had recently been re-elected as the AfD group’s parliamentary director, a role that included coordinating communication with other groups. Before the ballot he said, "I am not a hardliner but a pragmatist."

Earlier this year Rausch faced accusations of nepotism: several of his brothers and sisters were employed for a time by a member of the Bundestag, a matter he denied involvement in. He has also been criticised for hiring footballers from a club in Staßfurt during a period when he was club president; he rejected those allegations as well.

As speaker, the president of the Landtag is the highest-ranking official in the state by protocol, presides over parliamentary sessions and represents the legislature publicly. Since 1990 Saxony-Anhalt has had six Landtag presidents, all from CDU or SPD. For AfD the new post is an important step toward forming a government in the state: Ulrich Siegmund, who led the party’s list, intends to run for minister-president in December.

Photo: press material from the event