2023-07-24 17:33:35
The president of the conservative CDU formation, Friedrich Merz, was open to cooperating with the AfD in an interview on Sunday, after the German far-right party reached a record in the polls. Merz had to explain himself after receiving harsh criticism from his own party.
First modification: 07/24/2023 – 17:33
1 min
With the RFI correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thibaut.
On Sunday July 23, when commenting on two recent local electoral successes of the extreme right, the leader of the German conservatives and CDU chairman Friedrich Merz seemed to want to break the sanitary cordon established in Germany around the xenophobic formation AfD.
“We must respect the result of democratic elections,” he said in an interview with the public channel ZDF. “It’s natural to look for ways to continue working together in that city,” she added.
This Monday Merz had to back down as a result of the reactions in the ranks of the CDU. “There will be no cooperation between the CDU and the AfD at the municipal level,” the leader of the Christian Democratic Union tweeted.
Several regional bosses recalled that the party has adopted a motion that excludes all cooperation with the AfD and they were intractable.
The mayor of Berlin wrote on Twitter: “The CDU cannot and will not cooperate with a party whose business is based on hate, divisions and exclusion.”
22% voting intention
The leader of the Bavarian sister party CSU, Markus Söder, also rejected any local cooperation with the AfD.
The CDU is currently divided on which course to take in the face of the extreme right, whether to toughen its stance or remain in the center. Merz’s statements illustrate these debates. Backlash could further damage his chances in the chancellorship race, as the CDU chairman remains unpopular.
Created in 2013, the AfD is in full swing and appears in the polls as the second political force, with 22% of voting intentions at the national level, that is, 2 times more than a year ago and only 4 points behind the CDU.
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