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AfD heads Gera city council: Elections receive strong criticism
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Headquarters of the town hall: Gera town hall
Source: dpa / Jörg Carstensen
The Gera city council has elected a man from the AfD as president and thus has sparked outrage in state politics. Representatives of the left and the SPD point to the CDU and accuse it of collaborating with the AfD.
reThe election of an AfD politician to the head of the Gera city council sparked a heated debate in Thuringia state politics. Left-wing country’s leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow raised serious accusations against the CDU and wrote on Twitter: “How can a democratic party that you always want to 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 in the parliamentary group not to vote for the AfD candidate. This is exactly how it 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 twelve seats in the local parliament. In addition to the Left (eight seats), the CDU (six), the citizens of Gera (three), Für Gera (three), the Greens (three) and the SPD (three) have more than one seat in the city council. The vote was done in writing.
He was proud of the result, Etzrodt said after the election. “It is certainly new that the local 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 the Gera city council has made it clear that the AfD deserves all rights, as do other groups and, which is especially gratifying, that there are no left majorities when the whole bourgeoisie sticks 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”.
Months of discussion
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 meeting after the elections, the state administrative office complained about this passage, but in the words of Mayor Julian Vonarb (non-party), the paragraph is no longer illegal.
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.
