Berlin After fierce criticism from his own ranks, CDU party leader Friedrich Merz had to correct his position on possible cooperation with the AfD in the municipalities on Monday morning: “I never said it differently: the decision of the CDU applies. There will also be no cooperation between the CDU and the AfD at the municipal level,” Merz wrote on Twitter.
Merz was reacting to the storm of indignation that his statements about the AfD had triggered on Sunday. Several country heads of the Union had immediately distanced themselves.
Because on Sunday evening, the CDU chairman tweeted: “The topic of cooperation with the AfD affects the legislative bodies, i.e. in the European Parliament, in the Bundestag and in the state parliaments.” This also corresponded to the line that he had previously taken in the ZDF summer interview.
There Merz said that local politics is something different than state and federal politics. If the AfD has elected a district administrator in Thuringia and a mayor in Saxony-Anhalt, then these are democratic elections. “We have to accept that. And of course the local parliaments have to look for ways to shape the city, the state and the district together,” says Merz. What exactly he means by that, however, remained open in the interview.
State politicians of the CDU set themselves apart
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner wrote: “The AfD only knows against and division. Where should there be COLLABORATION? The CDU cannot, does not want to and will not work with a party whose business model is hate, division and exclusion. ”The AfD itself, on the other hand, sees Merz’s statements positively and wants to make cooperation with the CDU possible in the future. Party leader Tino Chrupalla wrote: “Now the first stones are falling from the black-green firewall. In the federal states and the federal government, we will tear down the wall together.”
Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) hurriedly distanced himself from the AfD. “For the CDU Hessen I can say very clearly that the firewall is in place. They are not our partners, we don’t work with them,” he said in the ZDF morning show.
The AfD is a party “that does not fit with Christian Democratic values”. Working with her was not possible for him at the municipal level either, and he did not understand Friedrich Merz that way either. When asked how Friedrich Merz meant his statements, Rhein replied: “You have to ask Friedrich Merz yourself.”
Rhein describes the proposal of his party colleague Thorsten Frei to abolish the individual right to asylum and replace it with quotas for the admission of refugees in Europe as an “interesting idea.” It will be further developed.
State elections in Bavaria and Hesse are approaching
The AfD was recently not only able to win top offices in individual eastern German municipalities, but is also around 20 percent in polls. In October, Bavaria and Hesse will elect a new state parliament, followed by Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in 2024, as well as local elections in nine states.
Merz’s statements were therefore understood as a gradual departure from the party’s previous decision-making process. This prohibits cooperation with the right-wing extremist party monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and provides for party expulsions for violations.
CSU boss Markus Söder also rejected any cooperation, “regardless of the political level”. The Bavarian Prime Minister, who has to face an election in October, also wrote on Twitter: “Because the AfD is anti-democratic, right-wing extremist and divides our society. That is not compatible with our values.” The AfD is demanding the exit from the EU and NATO, thereby weakening prosperity and endangering Germany’s security.
The Vice-President of the Bundestag, Yvonne Magwas, who is also a member of the CDU presidium, wrote: “Whether in the local council or in the Bundestag, right-wing radicals remain right-wing radicals. For Christian Democrats, right-wing extremists are ALWAYS the enemy!” The Federal Chairwoman of the Women’s Union, Annette Widmann-Mauz (CDU), said: “The party and its inhuman & anti-democratic content remain the same, no matter what level.”
The CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen emphasized that anyone who wants to change the ban on cooperation between the CDU and the AfD “must find a majority at a federal party conference of the CDU.”
Economy warns of AfD
Concerns had also recently grown in business that the AfD could cause serious damage to Germany. For this reason, entrepreneur Harald Christ, for example, called on executives in an interview with the Handelsblatt to take a stand against intolerance and right-wing extremism.
The President of the Association of Family Entrepreneurs, Marie-Christine Ostermann, wrote in a guest commentary for the Handelsblatt that the AfD is fighting everything that companies urgently need: the EU, legal certainty and the immigration of skilled workers.
More: The majority of those eligible to vote consider AfD to be right-wing extremists