(Adnkronos) – The constituent session of the Saxony-Anhalt regional parliament has opened, where on September 6, AfD won 43.8% of the votes. The appointment of the Parliament’s president is expected during the proceedings, likely the AfD candidate. Alternative for Germany does not have an absolute majority in the assembly but should be able to count on the support of the Bsw, the party founded by Sahra Wagenknecht, for the president’s appointment.
According to the organizers, at the opening of the session, over 500 people demonstrated in front of the Magdeburg parliament against the probable election of AfD politician Tobias Rausch as president of the assembly. Activists read the first 20 articles of the Basic Law, a reminder “of the foundations on which this work is based,” declared co-organizer Jacqueline Strauß of the epd news agency. Politicians from the Greens and the Left also participated in the protest. Rausch could be the first AfD politician elected head of a German regional parliament.
However, the vote for the appointment of the next governor-president will not be held today. The AfD’s Spitzenkandidat, Ulrich Siegmund, running for the position, said he wants to present himself in December, evidently to use the coming weeks for talks aimed at securing him a majority in the assembly. Today, meanwhile, he made a provocative gesture by appearing with a black mug bearing the inscription “Tears of the Left”. He displayed this mug, drinking repeatedly during the speech of President Eva von Angern, the Linke’s parliamentary group leader, the longest-serving deputy in the Landtag, who, as the senior President, was tasked with leading the constituent session and delivering the opening speech.
