The CDU's planned appointment of long-time police inspector Rainer Wendt as State Secretary in the Magdeburg Ministry of the Interior threatens to be a test of endurance for the black-red-green coalition. Both coalition partners of the Christian Democrats are against the personality, which would also mean skipping several career stages for Wendt.
The state board and party council of the SPD in Saxony-Anhalt rejected on Saturday in Dessau-Roßlau from the appointment of the controversial trade unionist. The state chairman Burkhard Lischka informed Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) that the SPD would agree to the necessary career decisions as a condition for the appointment of Wendt neither in the Cabinet, and possibly in the coalition committee.
The Greens refuse their support. After a unanimous vote in a teleconference of the state executive on Saturday afternoon, the chairman Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz said: "The Greens Saxony-Anhalt consider Rainer Wendt for the office of Secretary of State for inappropriate - in person and in terms of civil servants." Ultimately, the decision lies with the Prime Minister, but it is convinced that Haseloff could not agree in the interest of the country.
How Wendt could become State Secretary
For Wendt to rise to the rank of secretary of state, he has to skip several career stages. According to the SPD, this requires a corresponding Cabinet decision. Without such a thing would land in the coalition committee - there is unanimity necessary according to the coalition agreement.
"The basis of cooperation within the coalition is the coalition agreement, which also regulates the appointment of state secretaries." Furthermore, the appointment - as is customary in a constitutional state - according to applicable law and not according to political guidelines, "responded Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht (CDU) on the announcement of the SPD.
Why the parties reject Wendt
Already on Friday, the Green Party Spokesman for the Interior, Sebastian Striegel, had described the planned personnel as a "heavy burden" for the coalition. "Wendt stands for a domestic policy course that is not the contractual basis of this coalition," said Striegel told SPIEGEL.
The staff suit "in no way to the claim of the Prime Minister to bring more East Germans in leadership positions," said Saxony-Anhalt SPD leader Lischka on Saturday. Wendt was repeatedly noticed in recent years by resentments and prejudices. "That does not fit with a coalition of reason." In addition, Lischka criticized that the trade unionist had been paid for years without appearing to serve.
grade affair
Until his retirement from the police service in 2017, Wendt had spent part of his tenure as a police officer for ten years, even though he was a full-time trade unionist. In addition, in 2010 he had apparently been promoted without a legal basis. In addition, he had, according to Interior Ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia for several years lucrative additional income not specified.
Wendt stands for a tough course. In his book "Germany in danger" he criticizes the state as too lax, he lashed out, among other things, "cuddly justice" and "fun education". Statements about delinquent foreigners put him for some in the corner of right-wing populists.
The remarks of Wendt disqualified him for the office of Secretary of State, also finds the left-wing fraction in the Magdeburg state parliament. Anyone who claims that he can understand anyone "who says this is not a constitutional state at all", who thinks "the state does not care about the observance of the law" and deputies call it "parliamentary know-it-alls", can not credibly represent the constitutional state.
