With coalition negotiations ongoing, the Christian Democrats (CDU) are beginning to experience inner turmoil over the current polling weakness of the party. Meanwhile, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is soaring in the polls, and now just one point behind the CDU.
Dennis Radtke, head of the CDU’s workers’ wing, told Handelsblatt newspaper, that the polling weakness is now a major concern.
“We must confidently explain why we do what we do,” Radtke demanded, including why weapons investments are needed to “prevent our children from having to learn Russian.”
JUST IN: The AfD party is now on track to be the most popular party in Germany.
CDU: 25%
AfD: 24%
(Source: RTL/ntv trend)
The AfD is only a point away from tying for 1st place.
In France, Le Pen was also the top candidate in the polling right before she was banned. pic.twitter.com/RsSq9l76Qc
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 1, 2025“The current development is, to say the least, highly problematic and dangerous,” Radtke said. He is calling for an “honest analysis” of the election results.
The party must “not give the impression that the CDU has won an absolute majority and that we are selling our souls unnecessarily.”
However, the influential Welt newspaper is predicting even more dire consequences for the CDU. The influential deputy editor fo the paper, Ulf Poschardt, slams the CDU’s “firewall” against the AfD, pointing out that it is only strengthening the AfD.
Dear friends of the firewall, dear Antifa, congratulations on erecting the great firewall and its effective violence. You’ve done it. The AfD is now only slightly behind the CDU/CSU – and you don’t have to be a great prophet to suspect that this is only an interim result.
The CDU/CSU has made itself dependent on the culturally dominant left-green zeitgeist, and now the once conservatives and conservatives are being presented with the bill. The firewall agitators in the editorial offices, from the far left to the left to the center-left – which is most journalists – should also be rather grateful. The destruction of the CDU/CSU is in full swing. What the opportunist Angela Merkel failed to achieve, Friedrich “We’re halving the AfD” Merz is now managing to do.
He goes on to appeal to the conservative wing of the CDU, imploring them not to join a coalition with the SPD.
“And the conservatives in the CDU/CSU, the only relevant Antifa after Franz Josef Strauss, must ask themselves whether they want to allow the destruction of their party in a senseless coalition with an irresponsible SPD. Or not. It’s no longer just about the self-destruction of the CDU/CSU. The destruction of the country is getting closer. A little closer every day.”
The federal chairwoman of the Small and Medium-Sized Business Union, Gitta Connemann (CDU), also raised the alarm.
“The dire predictions even before the coalition negotiations have been concluded aren’t helping anyone, least of all the country,” also told Handelsblatt.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 24, 2025
Is this the quickest U-turn in political history?
After the CDU campaigned on strict immigration measures to take votes away from the AfD, chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz told a press conference the day after the election that "none of us want to close the borders."… pic.twitter.com/Ngxt98ag3r
The new Forsa poll has the AfD at 24 percent, just a point behind the CDU, which is at 25 percent. If elections were held today, there is no way the CDU could join a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), as the party would not have enough votes.
Friedrich Merz, who is thought to be the next chancellor, made a radical break with his campaign promise to not remove the debt brake. Almost immediately after the election, he said he would take out hundreds of billions of debt and change the constitution to do it, which he successfully passed using the previous Bundestag formation before a new parliament could take power.
It is thought that the Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the powerful domestic spy agency, has a report that will classify the AfD as “confirmed right-wing extremist.” At that point, the new Bundestag is expected to vote on a ban on the AfD, including the Greens, SPD, Left Party, and the CDU.
Merz himself has said he will recommend his MPs vote for a ban if the BfV delivers the report with such a designation. The BfV, a highly partisan agency, was led by a CDU member, Thomas Haldenwang, up until recently. Currently, a new president has not yet been appointed.
If a ban is voted through, the issue will go to the Constitutional Court.
In the end, Germany may end up banning the most popular party in the country.
