The centre-right CDU has been accused of breaking 'taboo' by putting forward a motion to the Bundestag for a stricter migration policy which was backed by the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD).
ADVERTISEMENTThe front-runner to become Germany's Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, says his centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) party will "never" work with the AfD, calling the far-right party his "most important opponent" in the country's upcoming election.
"I can assure voters in Germany very clearly of one thing: we will not work with the party that calls itself Alternative for Germany - not before (the election), not after, never. This party stands against everything our party and our country built up in Germany over the past years and decades. It stands against our Western orientation, it stands against the euro, it stands against NATO," Merz told crowds at the CDU federal party conference in Berlin.
His words were echoed by Markus Söder, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s sister party.
"Dear CSU, we say again and again and clearly and not just today. No, no, no to any form of cooperation with the AfD. We will not help the AfD, we will fight it, dear friends, with all our determination," Söder said.
Merz and his party drew widespread criticism last week after he attempted to push through a series of strict migration policies through parliament which were backed by the AfD. His motion for Germany to turn back many more migrants at its borders passed last Wednesday after votes from the far-right gave it a narrow majority.
According to Söder, Friedrich Merz made a "leading decision", with the Union motions and the draft bill in the Bundestag.
But the move has prompted protests across Germany, with demonstrators accusing Merz and his Christian Democrats of breaking Germany’s unwritten post-Nazi promise to never pass any rule or resolution with the support of the far-right or nationalist parties.
Merz even received a rare public rebuke from former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who called his decision to work with the AfD ‘wrong’. Both Merkel and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic party (SPD) accused Merz of breaking his word to not to allow any measures to pass thanks to AfD's votes.
Similarly, leader of the left-wing populist BSW party, Sahra Wagenknecht, kicked off her party's heated election campaign with the attacks on the CDU/CSU and the AfD.
"The old parties have lead our country into the decline", Wagenknecht said, adding that "if they remain on their own in the new Bundestag with the AfD the misery continues and 2029 the AfD is in the chancellery. That’s why we are needed as a contradiction as the only consequent peace force."
But Merz, who has been leading the polls ahead of the election on 23 February, has rejected the criticism, claiming he is not seeking cooperating with the AfD but merely putting forward tougher migration measures that are favoured by conservatives and voters alike.
He instead pointed the finger at the centre-left governing parties for being unwilling to approve changes to migration rules.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has suggested Merz can no longer be trusted not to form a government with AfD, which Merz angrily denies.
"We are being attacked, and there are protests against our policy," he said Monday, but "it's important to hold our course" on migration.