No candidate secured an absolute majority of 61 votes in the first round of the Saxony state premier election in the Saxon State Parliament on Wednesday. This means that a second round will follow, in which a relative majority will be sufficient, and the candidate with the most votes will win.
Of the 120 parliament members, 55 voted for the incumbent state premier, Michael Kretschmer (CDU), who is seeking a minority government with the SPD. Jörg Urban, the AfD candidate, received 40 votes. Matthias Berger, an independent candidate who initially ran for the Free Voters, got 6 votes. 12 members abstained, and 7 ballot papers were invalid.
The Left, with six parliament members, rejected both the AfD and Free Voters candidates.
The Bündnis Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW), which won 15 of the 120 seats in the state election, had announced it would not vote uniformly. The party had previously broken off talks with the CDU and SPD on a possible joint government.
The Greens, with seven parliament members, refused to support Kretschmer without prior agreements on the government’s future course. The party had recently called for a delay in the state premier election to avoid a “Kemmerich moment”.
The Greens also advocated for the possibility of voting no for multiple candidates, as in the second round, a simple majority is sufficient, and abstentions are not counted. With a sufficient number of no votes, a further round could be forced. After a brief debate at the start of the session, the Greens’ proposal was rejected.