Firewall returns? CDU leader Friedrich Merz vows no future cooperation with AfD

After a fierce backlash from left-wing parties and the mainstream media, CDU leader Friedrich Merz has pledged that his party will never again cooperate with the AfD in the Bundestag, insisting the recent joint voting was an exception

By Thomas Brooke
4 Min Read

Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) candidate for chancellor, has vowed never to coordinate with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) again in order to pass legislation in the Bundestag amid mounting criticism over an apparent breach of the “firewall.”

Speaking in an interview with RTL, Merz firmly denied any intention to benefit from AfD votes in the German parliament.

The center-right party received a torrent of abuse from mainstream media outlets and legacy parties in Germany for accepting AfD support in a recent resolution on reforming the country’s immigration and asylum law.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens, and the Left Party all accused Merz of pandering to the “far-right” by abandoning the “firewall” around the AfD which excludes the populist right-wing party as a pariah in German politics.

“I do not benefit from votes with the AfD. A situation like this will not occur again,” Merz said in an apparent succumbing to the recent pressure imposed on the CDU leadership over its recent collaboration.

Merz attributed the controversial voting situation to the lack of a governing majority in the Bundestag, describing it as an exception. “As soon as we have a government majority, such a situation will no longer arise,” he assured.

Amid mounting criticism over joint voting with the Alternative for Germany (AfD), CDU leader Friedrich Merz has pledged that such coordination will not happen again.

“There is no cooperation, no tolerance, no minority government — nothing at all,” Merz insisted as he reaffirmed his stance on the AfD at the CDU’s party congress.

He reiterated his desire to form any necessary coalition after the federal elections later this month with other legacy parties including the SPD and the Greens. Such a move, however, would render obsolete the CDU’s electoral pledges to crack down on asylum and migration.

The recent welcoming of the AfD out from the cold has backfired for Merz, giving the party legitimate influence in federal policy-making and incentivizing undecided voters that backing the AfD is not a lost cause. Recent polling from the Democracy Institute has seen Alice Weidel’s right-wing populists climb to 25 percent in national polling, just two points behind the CDU who have comfortably topped every poll in the run-up to the election.

The institute was one of the few to accurately predict Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential victory in 2016 and the ‘Leave’ vote in the U.K.’s Brexit referendum of the same year.

It further suggested that public endorsements of the AfD by tech billionaire Elon Musk are swinging voters, and the party’s coffers have been richly topped up in the last few weeks with three major donations totaling nearly €5 million.

Thousands of left-wing demonstrators protested outside the CDU party’s headquarters last week in Berlin against the move to rely on the AfD, with many calling for an outright ban of both parties as a result.

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