A seemingly irrelevant vote in the state parliament of Saxony has turned into a showcase of the hysteria affecting much of Germany’s political class.
After a motion submitted by the Greens received the support of MPs from the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD), the left-wingers said they were “in shock” and demanded another vote which they could then lose.
On May 13, the parliament voted on a motion by the Greens to support small slaughterhouses by reducing state fees.
Saxony is governed by a coalition government of the Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which does not have a majority in parliament.
The CDU and SPD opposed the Greens’ motion but it was still passed with a narrow majority of 55 to 52 votes – because it received support from AfD and the left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice (BSW) party.
The Greens reacted in astonishment. The left-wingers are among Germany’s most ardent supporters of the cordon sanitaire – the vow not to co-operate with AfD in any way.
Chairwoman Franziska Schubert said she and her party colleagues were “very shocked”, adding: “We never were looking for a majority for this motion together with AfD and BSW … Such a majority pains us deeply.
“Since the start of this legislative term, we have consistently done everything in our power to ensure that the AfD does not secure a majority in this state parliament.”
Federal Greens leader Felix Banaszak said his party had been “tricked” by the right-wingers: “We have seen how even within the state parliament, people are playing dirty. The disgraceful spectacle put on by the AfD and the BSW is damaging our parliament.
“Today’s actions are undermining trust, which is the foundation of our co-operation.”
Both AfD and BSW had indeed first opposed the motion during the debate but then signalled they would consent to it.
Liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) politician Wolfgang Kubicki said the Greens could have opted to vote against their own motion if they really had wanted to uphold the cordon sanitaire: “They made a conscious decision to vote for pig slaughter alongside the AfD. Either deliberately or out of stupidity.”
The Greens are now campaigning to introduce an option to repeat votes immediately in cases such as their own.
BSW leader Amira Mohamed Ali accused her fellow left-wingers of making a travesty of the democratic process: “If the Greens secure a majority for their motion, they want the vote to be repeated so that they lose. That’s not politics; it’s political theatre.”
The slaughterhouse incident is not the first time the Greens have been accused of double standards for getting their way with the help of the right-wingers.
In March 2026, a motion on chat monitoring by the German Greens was adopted in the EU Parliament only because 14 AfD MEPs voted in favour of it.
