Friedrich Merz confirms that the CDU does not want to cooperate with the AfD, but qualifies: At the municipal level, one must accept democratic elections and then also look for ways to shape them together, according to the CDU leader.
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz has again confirmed that the Union will not cooperate with the AfD, but limited this to “legislative bodies” and “government formations”. Local politics is something different than state and federal politics, he said on Sunday in the ZDF summer interview. If the AfD has elected a district administrator in Thuringia and a mayor in Saxony-Anhalt, then these are democratic elections, said Merz. “We have to accept that. And of course the local parliaments have to look for ways to shape the city, the state and the district together.”
Meanwhile, Merz rejects a ban on the AfD, as was recently discussed again.”Party bans have never led to solving a political problem”The parliamentary group leader named a corresponding proposal by the CDU member of the Bundestag Marko Wanderwitz in the past few days “an individual opinion in the parliamentary group that we do not share”.
Friedrich Merz: “We don’t measure ourselves against the AfD”
When asked what the AfD offers people and the CDU does not, Merz replied: “We don’t measure ourselves against the AfD, we are the largest opposition faction in the German Bundestag. This makes us the alternative to this federal government.” The Union must now deliver concepts and regain trust. That is a difficult path. “We’ve been doing pretty well for a year and a half now. But we still have to improve.”
Merz once again took up a term that he had already used on Wednesday at the retreat of the CSU state group in Andechs Monastery in Upper Bavaria. At that time he called the Union the “Alternative for Germany with substance”. He now said on ZDF that the opposition is always an alternative to the federal government. That’s how democracy is. “There is a government and of course there is an alternative to this government – for Germany. In Germany, for Germany.”
Sharp criticism from SPD and Greens
SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese sharply criticized Merz’ statements: “A year before the state elections in East Germany, Friedrich Merz’s statements are disturbing. He is tearing down the foundation of the Union’s firewall to the right”he said the . “That acts like a free ticket for those in the CDU in the east who have always considered working together.”
“Instead of strengthening the unity of the democratic forces, the much-vaunted firewall against the AFD is obviously no longer clear”wrote the parliamentary group leader of the Greens, Britta Hasselmann. “Where is this supposed to lead, dear @CDU?!”she added.
Source: Stern
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