Status: 16.09.2021 11:16 a.m.
The CDU politician Haseloff initially failed to be elected Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt. In the state parliament he missed the necessary majority of 49 votes. He now has to face a second ballot.
Reiner Haseloff missed the required majority in the first ballot in the election for Prime Minister in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt. Only 48 of the 97 MPs voted yes. Haseloff needs at least 49 yes-votes for an election. He now has to face a second ballot.
Sven Knobloch, MDR, on the first election defeat of Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Haseloff
tagesschau24 11:00 a.m., 16.9.2021
If he also fails to achieve an absolute majority, the majority of the votes cast in the third ballot would be sufficient for the election as head of government. The meeting was initially suspended for an hour. The coalition of CDU, SPD and FDP has 56 votes in the Magdeburg state parliament.
Several dampers before
The CDU had unexpectedly clearly won the state election on June 6 with 37.1 percent and has 40 MPs. Haseloff is aiming for a third term of office as the first head of government in Saxony-Anhalt. The now 67-year-old had already suffered a damper in his two previous elections: In 2011, several MPs from the coalition of CDU and SPD voted against Haseloff – because of the large majority at the time, it was enough for him in the first ballot.
At the beginning of the black-red-green coalition in 2016, however, Haseloff was only elected in the second ballot. Thanks to the gains in the new state parliament, Haseloff’s CDU already has a majority of one vote with the SPD alone. That was the 67-year-old, who in the past two years could not always rely on the entire CDU parliamentary group, but it was too tight. The FDP, which had managed to return to the state parliament after ten years with 6.4 percent, was seen by the conservatives as a natural coalition partner.
Day-long explorations
A continuation of the black-red-green state government had ruled out the CDU’s already unpopular Greens because of the black-red majority. In the election, the SPD had slipped to a historic low of 8.4 percent. After days of explorations, a party congress, coalition negotiations and a member survey, the Social Democrats had also agreed to join the new coalition.