AfD and BSW help Green motion to majority in Saxony

A state parliament motion by the opposition Greens in Saxony to support small slaughterhouses has received a majority with the help of the AfD, among others - albeit unintentionally, as the Greens assure us. In the motion, the ecological party complained, among other things, that small slaughterhouses were overly burdened by the fees for meat inspections compared to large companies and demanded that these should be reduced. The black-red coalition, which has no majority of its own and governs with the help of changing supporters, voted against it.

The other parties at federal and state level usually refuse to cooperate with the AfD. This also includes not introducing any motions that could only receive a majority with the help of the far-right party. The Greens are insisting that the so-called firewall to the AfD be maintained, particularly with regard to the CDU/CSU.

Greens react "very dismayed"

In Saxony, they were "very dismayed" following the state parliament session, according to a statement by parliamentary group leader Franziska Schubert. "At no point did we seek a majority with the AfD and the BSW for this motion." By the end of the debate, the AfD and BSW had expressed their opposition to agenda item eight with the motion "Implementing relief for small slaughterhouses - securing the future of regional meat processing". "In the end, the AfD and BSW only agreed together in order to show up the democratic parliamentary groups in the state parliament," wrote Schubert.

"Such a majority hurts us deeply as a democratic parliamentary group. Since the beginning of the legislative period, we have repeatedly done everything conceivable to ensure that the AfD does not gain a majority in this parliament. We have succeeded in doing so with hundreds of motions and amendments. Today, we were unable to prevent this, as the democratic parliamentary groups did not manage to prevent such a majority from forming through sufficient presence. That is also our responsibility, as we did not see this majority formation coming." The Greens now wanted to "do everything we can to optimize the agreements in the state parliament so that there are no majorities through the AfD".

The AfD parliamentary group celebrated their coup. "The firewall has fallen," they wrote in a statement. "A big thank you to the Greens." At the same time, the parliamentary group emphasized that there had previously been "no backroom deals between the Greens and the AfD".