BMW pulls car lease offer from AfD parliament speaker

BMW has withdrawn an offer to lease an official car to Tobias Rausch, an AfD politician elected speaker of Saxony-Anhalt's regional parliament, officials said Friday.

Rausch this week became the first member of a far-right party to become speaker in a German regional legislature since World War II.

A spokeswoman for the Saxony-Anhalt legislature said BMW usually leases official cars for top members of the state parliament, including the speaker. She said the carmaker withdrew the offer for Rausch on Tuesday, the day he was elected.

BMW declined to confirm the move, saying it did not usually comment on customer relations.

In a letter to BMW's board published by the weekly Die Zeit, Rausch questioned whether political conviction would determine whether a German company maintained business relations with someone.

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD leader in Saxony-Anhalt, accused BMW on X of having “little time for democracy”. Siegmund is seeking to become state premier in December.

Beatrix von Storch, an AfD lawmaker in the national parliament, appealed on X to Tesla owner Elon Musk, asking whether Tesla would provide Rausch with an official car.

Rausch's election followed the AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt last month, when it defeated Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right CDU.