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The Gera city council elected an AfD man as president and sparked outrage in state politics. Izquierda and SPD point to the CDU and accuse their cooperation with the AfD.
The election of an AfD politician to chair Gera’s town hall has sparked a heated debate in Thuringia state politics. The leader of the left-wing country, Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, raised serious accusations against the CDU and wrote on Twitter: “How can a democratic party that you want to always be the help of a far-right party?” Representatives of the SPD made similar statements. The CDU head of country, Christian Hirte, rejected this: “The CDU has clearly agreed within the parliamentary group not to vote for the AfD candidate. This is exactly what happened.”
At its meeting on Thursday night, the Gera city council elected AfD politician Reinhard Etzrodt as president. The retired doctor received 23 votes out of 40. The AfD itself only has 12 seats in the local parliament. In addition to the Left (8 seats), the CDU (6), the citizens of Gera (3), Für Gera (3), the Greens (3) and the SPD (3) have more than one seat in the city council. The vote was done in writing.
AfD man Etzrodt: “In the whole of Germany for the first and only time”
He was proud of the result, Etzrodt said after the election. “It is certainly a novelty that the municipal council president is a member of the AfD in a larger city.” AfD member of the Bundestag Stephan Brandner, also a member of the city council, said: “The majority of Gera city council has made it clear that the AfD has all the rights, as do other parliamentary groups and, which is particularly gratifying, that there are no left majorities. ” when all the bourgeoisie stick together. That should be the first and only one in Germany. “
The East Thuringian SPD member of the Bundestag Elisabeth Kaiser spoke of a bad sign for Gera. The state SPD asked on Twitter if the Thuringia CDU had learned nothing from February 5. At that time, Thomas Kemmerich, a member of the FDP state parliament, was elected prime minister of Thuringia with the votes of the AfD and the CDU. This had caused a political earthquake far beyond the borders of the country. A few days later, Kemmerich resigned, but remained in office for weeks until Bodo Ramelow (left) was elected.
The leader of the CDU parliamentary group, Mario Voigt, responded to the accusations against his party in the Gera case. “The CDU line is clear, that’s why it did not vote for the AfD man in Gera,” he wrote on Twitter. “Clear position of the city council group”.
More than a year of hanging game for the presidency
The election for the municipal council presidency was preceded by a month-long dispute over the legality of Gera’s main statute. According to the statutes, the strongest political group has the right to propose this position. Since the May 2019 local elections, it has been the AfD, which was the strongest force at the time at 28.8 percent. Shortly before the first post-election meeting, the state administration office complained about this step, but in the words of Mayor Julian Vonarb (non-party), he currently no longer sees any illegality in the paragraph.
Vonarb had chaired the meetings thus far due to the roughly 15-month hangover around the city council presidency. He handed over this task to Etzrodt on Thursday for the development of the meeting.
