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🇩🇪 Germany /Elections & Politics

Saxony-Anhalt BSW Candidate Signals Willingness to Cooperate With AfD

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Claudia Wittig, the BSW’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, says her party is open to cooperation with the AfD based on policy rather than party exclusion.
  • Wittig says the BSW would not elect either CDU leader Sven Schulze or AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund as premier, preferring an independent candidate supported by shifting majorities.
  • A ZDF poll puts the AfD at 41 percent, ahead of the CDU at 23 percent, while the BSW and FDP remain below the five-percent threshold.

Claudia Wittig, the BSW’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, says a party that could win 40 percent of the vote should not simply be excluded from cooperation. Her comments came days before the state election.

Speaking on the ZDF program Morgenmagazin, Wittig said politics should focus on substance and producing good policy for the state. She said the AfD represented a large pool of voters whom the BSW wanted to reach, while also questioning whether she shared the state constitutional protection agency’s classification of the AfD as a confirmed far-right party.

I believe you cannot simply exclude a 40-percent party, especially since it also represents a very large pool of voters whom we naturally want to reach.

· Claudia WittigWittig explained why she was open to cooperation with the AfD based on political content.

Wittig nevertheless criticized the AfD, saying it had no solutions to many important problems in the state. She said the same applied to the CDU. The BSW would not vote for either CDU politician Sven Schulze or AfD politician Ulrich Siegmund as minister-president, she said.

Instead, Wittig proposed an independent premier who would seek changing majorities for individual projects. She presented that model as a way to return politics to a focus on policy rather than fixed party alliances.

I do not even know whether that is my assessment.

· Claudia WittigShe responded when asked whether she agreed with the classification of the AfD as confirmed far-right by the state constitutional protection agency.

Wittig also criticized wage disparities between eastern and western Germany decades after reunification. She said workers in the food industry could earn 800 euros less for the same work in the east and called for wage alignment and collectively bargained pay, especially for work commissioned by the public sector.

The state parliament election is scheduled for Sunday. A new Research Group Wahlen poll commissioned by ZDF puts the AfD at 41 percent, one point higher than the previous week, and the CDU at 23 percent. The BSW stands at 4 percent and the FDP at 3 percent, both below the five-percent threshold. Twenty-six percent of respondents remain undecided about whether, or whom, to vote for.

We need collectively bargained wages.

· Claudia WittigWittig called for wage standards, especially in work commissioned by the public sector.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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