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Plenary hall in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt
Photo: Peter Gercke / dpa
Saxony-Anhalt's AfD has the opportunity to bring both the black-red-green state government and the CDU into turbulence at the federal level.
A prospect that the right wingers are now obviously trying to promote.
It's about the radio license fee.
Most recently, the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament announced that it would vote against an increase in public service fees.
The prime ministers have agreed that they will rise by 86 cents to 18.36 euros per month from 2021 onwards.
Now the state parliaments have to vote.
And because the coalition parties SPD and Greens in Magdeburg are in favor of an increase, a veto against the measure for the CDU parliamentary group would only be possible with the help of the AfD.
The vote in the Magdeburg state parliament is relevant because a veto there would prevent the unanimous agreement of all federal states for the State Treaty on Broadcasting.
CDU Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff ("My position on the AfD is known") is in talks with his parliamentary group, but some Christian Democrats have already considered collaborating with the far right in the past.
The AfD reached around 24 percent in the state elections four years ago and became the second strongest force behind the CDU.
The CDU doesn't have much time left
AfD parliamentary group leader Oliver Kirchner is now making an offer to the Union: »I expect the CDU to finally clarify your voting behavior.
We as the AfD are ready to help the CDU to vote against the increase in the license fee and to set an example. «It is a poisoned offer.
In the coalition agreement, the CDU, SPD and the Greens in Saxony-Anhalt had agreed on a stable contribution to broadcasting fees, which the CDU is now referring to.
Meanwhile, the AfD is looking at the conflict from the sidelines.
»The CDU and AfD have a unique opportunity in the state parliament to set a historic example.
The AfD is ready for this, ”said the Saxon-Anhalt AfD boss and member of the Bundestag Martin Reichardt to SPIEGEL.
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Prime Minister Haseloff
Photo: Pool / Getty Images
The leading directors of ARD, ZDF, MDR and Deutschlandradios recently appeared in the state parliament in the media committee and promoted, among other things, the increase in the fee, which is currently 17.50 euros per month.
Afterwards, the CDU parliamentary group leader Siegfried Borgwardt declared that the Christian Democrats stuck to their no.
And the parliamentary director of the CDU parliamentary group, Markus Kurz, recently told SPIEGEL: "Public broadcasting has become too big and too expensive for decades."
Today there are almost 90 television and radio stations.
"Do you need them for the basic assignment?" (Read more details here).
The AfD is, even in the federal government, a sharp critic of the public broadcasters.
AfD honorary chairman Alexander Gauland claimed last year that the public broadcasters only reached a fraction of the people, "mostly served the left spectrum with their tendentious reporting", should streamline themselves, concentrate on their core tasks and forego "compulsory fees" .
In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD there has repeatedly made its position clear.
They do not want to abolish public service broadcasting, "but introduce a payment barrier." Those who want to pay the fees can then see their programs, says AfD parliamentary group leader Kirchner.
The CDU does not have much time left to clarify its course.
The vote in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament is expected to take place in December.
The AfD assumes, however, that Haseloff, who abstained from voting by the prime ministers in the summer of the new version of the State Treaty on Broadcasting, will try to bring the CDU parliamentary group to abstention.
Then it would be up to the SPD, the Greens and the Left to enforce the increase with their votes against the AfD, according to the AfD.
If the CDU and AfD actually acted together, it would be reminiscent of the Thuringia case.
There, in February, the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich was briefly lifted into the office of Prime Minister with the votes of the FDP, CDU and AfD.
A joint vote by the CDU and AfD against the increase in the license fee would probably trigger a similar political quake, in Magdeburg it could even break the Kenya coalition.
Correspondingly claused warnings have already been heard from the SPD there.
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