As scores of Germans flock to the AfD, viewing it—rightly or wrongly—as the only party that articulates and offers solutions to the increasingly and exceedingly grim realities faced by working and middle-class people, the CDU is undergoing rightward reshuffling, with more and more top politicians calling for the AfD firewall to be disassembled.
Lawmakers in the state of Thuringia—a conservative, anti-globalist stronghold where, according to the latest polls, one in three support the AfD—are perhaps most acutely aware, compared to those in other regions, that if the CDU wishes to show its voters that it’s not just another woke-left-liberal party and to have the chance to govern again, cooperation with AfD is essential.
This is evinced in an interview with the Berlin-based magazine Apollo News, where several leading Thuringian CDU politicians urged their party’s leader Friedrich Merz, who has ruled out any form of cooperation with the AfD at the state or federal level, to abandon the firewall, which some argue works to make the right-wing populist party stronger.
Michael Heym, a CDU member of parliament in Thuringia who for many years served as the deputy chairman of the state’s parliamentary faction; Ralph Luther, a district administrator in southern Thuringia for over two decades; and Ralph Liebaug, the Chairman of the CDU in Schmalkalden-Meiningen are among those politicians urging the party to chart a new course.
MP Michael Heym spoke the most candidly about his party’s federal leadership’s pro-firewall position, criticizing it sharply. Asked whether the CDU ought to cooperate with the AfD, he replied with a frank “yes.”
The Thuringian lawmaker called the CDU’s firewall against the conservative party a complete “failure,” and argued that if it continued along its current course—and continued to rule out any form of cooperation with the AfD—that the “party will be torn apart.”
The practice of “complete exclusion,” Heym said, will “become impossible,” noting that the AfD, after it holds one-third of the seats in state parliament, would “be able to block all important votes in Thuringia, where a two-thirds majority is required.” Then, he continued, the parliament will essentially cease to function.
“If something doesn’t change fundamentally, then we’ll see the twilight of the gods,” Heym said, referring to the last of Richard Wagner’s fourth and final opera in his illustrious “Ring Cycle,” where the gods’ greed, corruption, moral degeneracy, and sordid pursuit of power results in their downfall.
Former District Administrator Luther, considered one of the most influential voices in the regional CDU, struck a similar tone, suggesting that shamelessly biased portrayal of the AfD by the media and politicians has contributed to the party’s precipitous rise.
“People, especially in the East, do not allow themselves to be patronized, by politicians or by the media. I’m proud of that,” Luther said, arguing that this was the only way to “explain the rapid increase in the AfD’s favorability among voters.”
Again, underlining the absurd and dishonest portrayal of AfD voters as Nazis by globalist politicians and media outlets, Luther shared his experience with supporters of the conservative party in his local community.
“I live in a small village, consisting of two districts, with about 700 inhabitants,” he began.. “In the last state and federal elections, the AfD’s share was between 33 and 42 percent. Since I myself am active in the sports, carnival, poultry club, community and community church council, I know how individuals tick. None of the AfD voters and sympathizers are Nazis or share their ideas. On the contrary, they are among the most active in the clubs.”
Luther’s comments concerning the character of AfD voters stand in stark contrast with those made by the head of Thuringia’s state internal security services last month, when he essentially called all 16 million of them Nazi trash, referring to them as the “brown dregs” of German society.
The CDU politician’s statements do, however, line up with a recent survey that examined the
demographic profiles of AfD voters, and revealed that the party’s supporters, contrary to what the mainstream press has attempted to portray, come from all social classes, education groups, and ages.
