Bavarian leader demands CDU lawmakers who voted for AfD speaker step forward

Bavarian conservative leader Markus Söder has called on Christian Democratic Union members who voted for an Alternative for Germany parliamentary speaker in Saxony-Anhalt to reveal themselves, DW reported on October 12. Söder made the comments during an interview with public broadcaster ARD. He told lawmakers who backed the far-right candidate to speak up if they wished to go somewhere else, DW reported. [1]

Söder is a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU, according to DW. His comments follow the election of Tobias Rausch, a 35-year-old AfD politician, as speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament in Magdeburg. As FTMQ News reported earlier, Rausch is the first far-right politician to become a German state parliament speaker since World War Two. [1][6][7]

Rausch won the state parliamentary vote with the backing of nine lawmakers from other parties, as FTMQ News reported earlier. DW and Reuters previously reported that center-right CDU lawmakers may have voted for the AfD candidate, which Germany's Social Democrats described as a unique breach of taboos. The AfD has been struggling to form its first state government, as FTMQ News reported earlier. [6][7]

Saxony-Anhalt was re-established on October 3, 1990, following German reunification. The state recorded a gross domestic product of 81.8 billion euros in 2025, with a per capita output of 38,560 euros. Germany is a country in Western and Central Europe made up of 16 constituent states with a total population of over 83 million people. [2][5]