2024-09-23 13:50:47
There are still three years until the next state election in Lower Saxony. But the AfD already has big plans.
The AfD parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament is aiming for a coalition with the CDU after the next state election in 2027. “I think cooperation with the CDU is certainly possible,” said AfD parliamentary group leader Klaus Wichmann to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”, but added: “But not with the CDU as it currently sits here in the state parliament.”
So far, the Union has ruled out cooperation at the state and federal level. “That would kill the CDU,” CDU leader Friedrich Merz told the editorial network Germany in August. But the so-called firewall, according to Wichmann, cannot be maintained in the long term. “Sooner or later, the CDU will have no choice but to enter into coalitions with the AfD.”
The AfD parliamentary group leader hopes to participate in the government after the next state election. There is “a large conservative force”, that is the AfD, and there is a force that has “at least a conservative past”, that is the CDU. “If these two forces move towards each other, then the AfD’s participation in the government is actually realistic,” emphasized Wichmann.
It is also conceivable that the AfD will put forward its own candidate for prime minister. The aim is to achieve a result of “well over 20 percent.” In the 2022 state elections, the AfD became the fourth strongest force, receiving 11 percent; the CDU received 28.1 percent.