CDU leader Friedrich Merz in an interview over the weekend stated that he is open to doing away with the Brandmauer or firewall against the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and cooperating with the party at the local level, prompting a sharp rebuke from politicians inside and outside his party.
In a “summer interview,” aired on Sunday, July 23rd, by the public broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), Merz, who assumed the leadership of the liberal-establishment Christian Democratic Union (CDU) a year and a half ago, shocked everyone when he announced the dismantling of the firewall—at least at the local level—against the AfD that he had previously pledged to uphold no matter what.
While Merz reaffirmed that his party would not cooperate with the AfD in legislative bodies at all levels—from the European Parliament to the federal Bundestag to the state parliaments—he said that the ban on the CDU’s cooperation with the right-wing populist party does not apply to at the local level.
Democratically elected officials from the AfD must be dealt with pragmatically, Merz told the broadcaster. “Of course, we are obliged to accept democratic elections,” he began. “And if a district administrator, a mayor who belongs to the AfD, is elected there, it goes without saying that one looks for ways to continue working in this city.”
In late June, the AfD scored a historic breakthrough when citizens in Sonneberg in the eastern state of Thuringia elected AfD politician Robert Sesselman to the position of district administrator. A week later, the right-wing party, notched another first when its candidate, Hannes Loth, won a mayoral election in Saxony-Anhalt.
The CDU chief also rejected wholesale the idea of banning the AfD, which quite a few in Germany’s left-liberal milieu, including politicians from the CDU, The Left, and Scholz’s SPD as well as think tanks, have called for as more and more citizens throw their support behind the anti-establishment party.
“Party bans have never led to solving a political problem,” Merz declared.
AfD Co-Chairman Tino Chrupalla welcomed the CDU’s remarks, writing on Twitter: “Now the first stones are falling out of the black-green firewall. In the federal states and the federal government, we will tear down the wall together. The winners will be the citizens who regain prosperity, freedom, and security through interest-driven politics.”
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) was among the first to issue a sharp rebuke of the statements made by the party leader.”The AfD only knows opposition and division. Where should there be cooperation? The CDU cannot, will not, and will not work with a party whose business model is hatred, division, and exclusion,” Wegner wrote in a tweet.
CDU Vice-President of the Bundestag Yvonne Magwas, also a member of the CDU presidium, which is the body responsible for executing the resolutions of the federal executive committee and handling current and urgent business, reacted similarly in a post to Twitter.
“Whether it’s the local council or the Bundestag, right-wing radicals remain right-wing radicals. For Christian Democrats, right-wing extremists are always the enemy!” she wrote.
The Left’s faction leader in the Bundestag Dietmar Bartsch claimed that it is “only a matter of time” before the firewall against the AfD “collapses,” saying that Merz’s statements suggested there are “huge holes” in the CDU’s “right-wing firewall.”
Jochen Ott, the SPD faction leader in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, also called into question whether the CDU’s firewall against the AfD would stand. “I am very dismayed by Mr. Merz’s statements and hope that the CDU will not betray its own principles here,” Ott began.
“Whenever it mattered in history, many conservatives did not stand. That must not be repeated. This would also expose the oath of the firewall in the federal and state governments as gossip,” the SPD state leader suggested.
The apparent dismantling of the CDU’s firewall against the AfD at the local level came just days after an opinion survey revealed that support for the right-wing populist party, once again, reached a new all-time high, at 22% of the national vote—just four percentage points behind Merz’s party.
