CDU Prime Minister Haseloff: The problem with the right-wing populists
Photo: THOMAS PETER / REUTERS
Things-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff wants to avoid a possible cooperation between his CDU parliamentary group and the AfD in the dispute over the state media treaty.
"Talks are still being held on the subject of broadcasting fees," Haseloff told SPIEGEL.
"My position on the AfD is known." In the coming days, the Prime Minister reportedly wants to speak to the coalition partners of the SPD and Greens as well as to his own people.
The dispute over the rejection of higher broadcasting fees is now not only burdening the coalition in Magdeburg, it is also asking the federal CDU again where it draws the boundaries to the AfD.
The background to this is that the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament announced that it would vote against an increase in public service fees.
They are expected to rise by 86 cents to 18.36 euros per month from 2021.
Because Haseloff's coalition partners SPD and Greens are in favor of an increase, a veto against the measure 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 unanimity of all federal states for the State Treaty on Broadcasting.
The state treaty only comes into force if all 16 state parliaments agree.
It also includes the controversial fee increase.
Haseloff is considered a skeptic but not an opponent of public broadcasting.
In recent years he has insisted that the East German federal states should be given greater consideration in reporting.
The dispute in the state parliament now confronts the Prime Minister with a dilemma: he cannot give his parliamentary group any instructions.
However, if she votes against the state treaty with the AfD, that could become an acid test for his coalition.
The SPD there has already announced consequences for the case.
The dispute is now also being closely followed in the federal CDU.
There they fear a renewed debate about how their East German state associations deal with the AfD.
At the beginning of the year, the Thuringian CDU parliamentary group caused severe turbulence in the federal party when they briefly helped an FDP man into the office of prime minister with the AfD in the state parliament.
Party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer then had to announce her withdrawal.
In Saxony-Anhalt there will be elections next year.
The parliamentary group there is considered to be difficult to control at the Berlin party headquarters like that in Thuringia.
The SPD has already called for the CDU to intervene.
"The CDU in Saxony-Anhalt is allied with the openly right-wing extremist state AfD," said SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil to SPIEGEL.
»Where's the warning, the interference from the CDU federal level, what does Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer say about this process?
You can't just sweep it under the rug. «The vote on the state treaty in the Magdeburg state parliament is scheduled for mid-December.
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