Söder presses CDU after AfD speaker wins 48 votes

Bavarian premier Markus Söder on Oct. 12 urged CDU lawmakers suspected of helping elect AfD politician Tobias Rausch with 48 votes as Saxony-Anhalt parliamentary speaker to identify themselves, DW reported in a live blog.

Rausch's election last week was the AfD's first reported success in securing a state parliamentary speakership, increasing pressure on Germany's conservative bloc over its stance toward the far-right party.

Söder, head of Bavaria's CSU, spoke as a senior figure in the sister party of Chancellor Merz's Christian Democrats. In an ARD interview cited by DW, he challenged the suspected CDU defectors: "Do you want to go somewhere else? Then just say so."

DW reported that the populist BSW party had said it would support Rausch together with the AfD. Because Rausch received 48 votes, DW said additional lawmakers must have backed him in the secret ballot, with CDU members strongly suspected.

The episode matters because Germany's mainstream parties have maintained a so-called firewall against cooperation with the AfD. DW said CDU members were among those accusing colleagues in Saxony-Anhalt of breaching that political boundary.

Söder called the conduct "pretty poor form" and said those involved should "at least have the backbone" to make their choice public. The identities of the lawmakers who voted for Rausch were not confirmed in the DW report because the ballot was secret.

DW also reported separate turmoil in Berlin, saying Bärbel Bas had resigned as SPD co-leader and federal labor minister after citing "open attacks" by members of the CDU, as well as a recent family death.

Source: live blog, DW, Oct. 12