The deputy of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Tobias Rausch, has been elected this Tuesday president of the Parliament of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, which means that the ultranationalist and xenophobic formation assumes for the first time since its emergence the leadership of a regional legislative chamber.
Rausch takes office after the wide victory of AfD in the regional elections of September 6, in which it obtained 43.8 percent of the votes, without reaching an absolute majority. Despite this, this circumstance has not hindered his rise: the German deputy has been proclaimed the new president of the state parliament with 48 votes in favor, 29 against, and 5 abstentions.
The election has gone ahead thanks to the support of the populists of the BSW and their five seats in the hemicycle of Magdeburg, who had promised to support Rausch's candidacy considering that the group with the most support at the polls should assume the presidency of the Chamber.
With this support, the BSW has contributed to breaking the "sanitary cordon" that the previously dominant parties (conservatives, social democrats, and liberals) maintained against AfD, currently a clearly prominent force in the polls ahead of potential general elections in 2029.
It is worth remembering that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the German domestic intelligence service, has classified the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt as a confirmed far-right party.
At the beginning of the year, Rausch, a former real estate agent, was involved in a controversy driven by the traditional parties against several leaders of the AfD, whom they accused of nepotism. In the specific case of Rausch, several of his brothers worked temporarily for a member of the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, although he claimed that he did not participate in those hiring processes and rejected the accusations related to this episode.