The Christian Democratic Union will not supply votes to the Alternative for Germany's candidate for the presidency of Saxony-Anhalt's state parliament, according to WELT. CDU general secretary Carsten Schulze ruled out any support for Ulrich Siegmund categorically, saying the AfD should not count on it. His remarks were reported on Monday.
The statement responds directly to the question of whether Siegmund can reach the votes he needs with help from the CDU. BILD had raised that possibility, asking whether his missing votes would come from the Christian Democrats. Schulze's answer closes that route off.
The picture is complicated by the position of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance. FOCUS online reports that the BSW intends to vote for the AfD candidate for the state parliament presidency. That gives Siegmund at least one source of support outside his own parliamentary group, even as the CDU refuses to provide another.
Schulze's comments also touched on the wider question of cooperation between the two parties. According to tagesschau.de, he said no one from the CDU would switch to the AfD. The remark was made in the context of Sachsen-Anhalt, where the shape of the next state government remains unresolved. vorwärts.de has framed the same question bluntly, asking whether an AfD-led government can still be prevented in the state.
What to watch next: whether Siegmund can assemble a majority for the presiding post without CDU votes, and how the BSW's declared support affects the arithmetic in the state parliament.
