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AfD politician Reinhard Etzrodt has been elected president of the Gera town hall. The retired doctor received 23 of 40 votes Thursday night. The AfD itself only has twelve seats in parliament. Nina Wunderlich (left), Andreas Kinder (CDU) and Norbert Hein (Liberal Alliance) were elected deputies from Etzrodt.
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.”
Months of tug of war on voting procedures
The written election was preceded by a 15-month tug-of-war on the electoral process. Surprisingly, the state administration office criticized the main statute and demanded a change. For years it has been established in the statutes that the strongest parliamentary group has the right to propose the parliamentary presidency, in this case the AfD. After criticism not only from the AfD ranks, the state administration moved away from the lawsuit.
Due to the roughly 15-month complication over the city council presidency, independent mayor Julian Vonarb had previously chaired the meetings. He handed over this task to Etzrodt on Thursday for the development of the meeting.
Wahl receives strong criticism
Shortly after the election of the AfD politician to the head of Gera’s city council, left-wing head of state Susanne Hennig-Wellsow raised serious accusations against the CDU. On Twitter she wrote: “How can a democratic party you want to be always be the puppet of a far-right party?” Representatives of the SPD made similar statements.
