Overview
- In the constituting session on 6 October 2026 the AfD politician Tobias Rausch was elected Landtag president with 48 of 82 valid votes, four more than the AfD and BSW hold together.
- At a CDU group meeting on 13 October members were shown a draft declaration that would have asked deputies to confirm they had not voted for Rausch or Hans-Thomas Tillschneider and to resign if proven otherwise; the paper was debated and then withdrawn without a vote.
- Sven Schulze, CDU faction leader and minister-president, confirmed the document existed but said it did not come from him or the faction leadership and denied issuing it.
- Landtag president Tobias Rausch has ordered the parliamentary legislative and advisory service to review the matter and request a CDU statement, and the AfD has filed a criminal complaint alleging coercion over the circulation of the draft paper.
- Constitutional experts note the draft has no legal force because deputies have a free mandate and secret ballots are protected, while the episode has intensified internal CDU tensions, prompted calls for clarification or resignations, and could affect the party’s strategy ahead of the December minister-president vote.