(Adnkronos) – The Saxony-Anhalt parliament has elected CDU politician and former Minister of Economic Affairs Sven Schulze as the new state premier. The forty-six-year-old secured the necessary majority in the first round of voting. Schulze succeeds Reiner Haseloff, also a Christian Democrat, who resigned from his position – which he had held since 2011 – before the end of the legislative term, to allow his successor to present himself for the September 6 vote as incumbent premier and not as a CDU premier candidate, thus from a stronger position, in view of a difficult electoral appointment.
58 deputies voted in favor of Schulze, 38 against, with no abstentions. One vote was invalid. The required majority was 49 votes; the ruling coalition, CDU-SPD-FDP, has 56. Schulze secured two additional votes. The election result is remarkable, ‘Der Spiegel’ observes: there were reservations about Schulze within the coalition, even within the CDU itself. And when his predecessor Haseloff was elected in 2016 and 2021, he did not pass in the first round on either occasion. The fact that Schulze succeeded so clearly on the first attempt, with the help of opponents, is surprising. (continues)
Sven Schulze has made his way in politics with determination. At the end of 2016, the CDU of Saxony-Anhalt created the position of general secretary and elected Schulze to that office. He was a member of the European Parliament for seven years, then became chairman of the CDU in the state in March 2021. After the 2021 state elections, he discreetly worked in favor of forming a CDU, SPD, and FDP coalition and at his Ministry of Economic Affairs, Tourism, Agriculture, and Forestry.
Of the five state elections scheduled for this year, Saxony-Anhalt is where the CDU has the most to lose. Not only due to the possible loss of a premiership, but also because of the risk of the AfD coming to power, for the first time in a federal state. In the last electoral poll, Alternative for Germany reached 39 percent, the CDU 26 percent.
