Far-right AfD secures powerful parliament post in historic Germany first

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland has secured the speakership of a regional parliament for the first time since the Second World War.

AfD politician Tobias Rausch was elected president and speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt parliament on Tuesday, winning 48 of 82 votes in the first round, The Guardian reported.

The result follows the AfD’s strong performance in last month’s state election, when it won nearly 44 percent of the vote and secured 39 seats, narrowly short of an outright majority.

The vote has raised fresh questions about Germany’s political “firewall”, an agreement among mainstream parties to avoid cooperating with the AfD.

BSW deputy Christian Leye said the “firewall is not working” and argued that voters who backed the AfD could not be ignored.

Later on Tuesday, AfD politician Hans-Thomas Tillschneider was elected Rausch’s deputy with 44 votes.

In his acceptance speech, Rausch promised to represent all voices and “take different opinions seriously and to try to take decisions in a transparent way”.

The AfD is classified as “rightwing extremist” by Saxony-Anhalt’s state intelligence agency.