Saxony-Anhalt Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht continues to enjoy the backing of his party colleagues in the state parliament. In a secret ballot, the majority of the faction have expressed their confidence in the minister, said CDU party leader Siegfried Borgwardt after a three-hour special session. Stahlknecht, together with Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, answered all questions about the ruptured change from Rainer Wendt to Magdeburg.
According to SPIEGEL information, 16 CDU members voted in favor of Stahlknecht's confidence. 13 voted against it. There was one abstention.
Wendt did not inform him correctly, says Stahlknecht
Stahlknecht officially took over responsibility for a brief statement. "The thing Wendt, even if others were involved in the decision-making, was a mistake of mine," he said. Vice versa Wendt did not inform him correctly.
A week ago, Stahlknecht and Haseloff had announced surprisingly that the political hardliner and police commissioner Wendt should become State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior. After much criticism, the CDU faction withdrew the offer of posts, without giving a justification. Now Stahlknecht said that they were aware of circumstances too late and had become aware that they had stood in the way of an appointment for legal reasons.
Most recently, it became known that Wendt is being cut off from his former employer's pension for service offenses. In these circumstances, a promotion to top officials under Saxon-Anhalt law is not possible. The State Chancellery and the Ministry of the Interior had not commented on this to date and referred to the confidential nature of the talks.