The parents of a 22-year-old student murdered in Trier have called for Germany’s political “firewall” against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to be dismantled, arguing that politicians must be prepared to work with the party to secure majorities for tougher immigration policies.
Marius Dick was stabbed to death at around 10 a.m. on July 15 while returning from shopping on Robert-Schumann-Allee. According to the reported account, Afghan asylum seeker Sajad M., also 22, emerged from behind a hedge and stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife, piercing his heart.
The two men did not know each other. The suspect had reportedly been declared mentally ill by a public health officer, despite previously being regarded as well-integrated and described as a pleasant neighbor and colleague.
Three weeks after their son’s death, Thomas and Elke Dick told Welt that Germany’s established parties must abandon their refusal to cooperate with the AfD.
“You have to seek majorities to find majorities. That also means sitting down with the AfD and talking about common ground,” they said.
The couple warned that dangerous migrants and refugees were moving around Germany without authorities knowing where they were and demanded that politicians “finally” act to stop the continuing series of violent attacks.
They said the violence had continued even after Marius’s killing, pointing to the subsequent attack on Christopher Street Day in Berlin.
The intervention is particularly significant because both parents are CDU members. The party leadership continues to reject parliamentary cooperation with the AfD under the longstanding political firewall. After the last federal election, the AfD became the second-largest party in the Bundestag, but because of the firewall, was unable to agree a coalition government with the center-right CDU, paving the way for yet another Grand Coalition between the CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD).
The Dicks said they had lost confidence in the governing parties’ willingness and ability to halt illegal immigration and migrant violence. They also questioned whether their own party genuinely intended to act, saying cooperation with the AfD was now necessary rather than a matter of political sympathy.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz contacted the family five days after the murder, but the parents said no meaningful political consequences followed.
Their appeal comes as establishment pressure for proceedings against the AfD continues to grow. Earlier this week, the Republican Lawyers’ Association said 1,051 lawyers, judges, and prosecutors had signed a petition urging Germany’s federal institutions to seek a constitutional ban on the party, up from about 500 signatories in mid-July.
Meanwhile, the AfD has continued to gain support, becoming the most popular party in Berlin in an Insa poll published last month. It received 19 percent, ahead of the CDU and Left party on 18 percent each. The Greens recorded 16 percent and the Social Democrats 13 percent.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel has continuously demanded stricter naturalization rules, faster deportations, and tougher asylum laws, in line with what she says law enforcement agencies have been crying out for.
“Restrictive naturalization laws, stricter deportation rules, tightening of asylum law: What the German Police Union vainly demands from Merz has long been policy in the AfD,” she wrote on X. “With an AfD government, the migration turnaround is coming!”
