{
  "id": 12411629,
  "title": "AfD politician becomes first party member to lead a German state parliament",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/afd-politician-becomes-first-party-member-to-lead-a-german-state",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-06T15:32:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "New Voice of Ukraine",
    "slug": "new-voice-of-ukraine",
    "url": "https://english.nv.ua/nation/afd-politician-becomes-first-to-lead-german-state-parliament-50647641.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Tobias Rausch, a politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has been elected as the president of Saxony-Anhalt's state parliament. This makes him the first member of the party to lead a state parliament in Germany. Rausch, 35, won the vote with the support of 9 MPs from other parties, despite the AfD falling short of a majority in last month's election.\n\nThe election of Rausch as parliament speaker has been met with criticism and concern. Protesters outside the parliament building in Magdeburg held up banners saying \"Never again is now\". The regional Greens party leader, Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz, said that \"a line has been crossed\" with the election of a far-right speaker of parliament, and that it was a watershed moment.\n\nRausch rejected a post-war consensus in German politics not to work with the far right, saying that \"the days of political firewalls should be a thing of the past\". The AfD is considered pro-Russian and anti-immigrant, and has plans to segregate child refugees in schools, as well as being intolerant towards the LGBT community. According to BBC News, domestic intelligence classifies the AfD as \"right-wing extremist\" within Saxony-Anhalt.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "BBC News",
        "title": "AfD candidate elected speaker of German regional parliament for first time",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/afd-candidate-elected-speaker-of-german-regional-parliament-for-first",
        "published": "2026-10-06T14:44:03.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}