By Miranda Murray
BERLIN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that extremism was entering the country’s legislatures on Wednesday after a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany was elected president of the state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt.
He also urged other politicians not to cooperate with the AfD after the tallies showed lawmakers from the far left and other parties had helped to vote Tobias Rausch in on Tuesday after his party won the most seats in last month’s state election.
The AfD’s success in the eastern state has put Merz’s government under pressure and raised questions about the usefulness of the “firewall” custom among mainstream parties that forbids them from entering a coalition with the AfD or using their help to pass policy measures.
Rausch’s election has fuelled speculation that some lawmakers from Merz’s own CDU — whom the AfD has been courting — may have supported Rausch, although there is no evidence as the ballot was secret.
SECRET BALLOT
“Extremism is forcefully making its way into our parliaments,” said Merz, warning that any lawmaker who helped the AfD was “playing the extremists’ game and undermining credibility”.
“In any case, this is incompatible with the values of my party, the CDU,” added Merz, who challenged the idea that his Christian Democrats voted for the AfD’s candidate.
Rausch secured 48 votes, more than expected, suggesting he attracted support not only from his own party and the far-left BSW - totalling 44 votes - but also from at least four other lawmakers.
The BSW, whose founder has vowed to end the “firewall idiocy”, pledged ahead of the vote to support the AfD, with whom it shares a hostility to mass immigration and desire to end Russia sanctions.
Both parties used their new majority in the state parliament to immediately introduce a motion calling for Germany to halt military and financial support for Ukraine and lift sanctions on Russia.
Merz said it was up to the state parliamentary groups to determine if it would be possible to find out what happened in the secret ballot, while cautioning against jumping to conclusions as he warned of political “false flag operations”.
“We are dealing with at least two - or rather, three - factions in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament that are doing everything they can to undermine the cohesion of our democracy,” said Merz in reference to the AfD, BSW and far-left Left party.
Merz’s coalition partners, the Social Democrats, have demanded clarification from the CDU, and federal parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch said he planned to address the matter during a coalition meeting on Wednesday evening.
(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Matthias Williams and Alison Williams)
