Olaf Scholz: “After today, I can’t trust Merz anymore”

After the AfD vote for the Union proposal for migration policy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke of a “taboo break” and made serious accusations to the candidate for Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). After today, he could no longer trust Merz, said Scholz in the ARD talk show “Maischberger”. There have been clear statements from Merz that “exactly what happened today would not happen” – now he has acted differently.

The AfD, which was classified as right-wing extremist, had approved a five-point plan presented by Merz to tighten migration policy. The Union chief expressly accepted the AfD support for his motion for resolution in advance of the vote in the Bundestag.

The FDP also voted for the proposal. As announced, the SPD, the Greens and the Left voted, BSW representatives abstained. Green CO parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann spoke after the coordination of a “historical day-in the negative sense”.

Merz defended his approach, however. The question of “whether we should go into such a coordination has been busy for a long time,” said the CDU candidate for chancellor at the ARD “daily topics”. Merz rejected that it was a collaboration: “Cooperation is cooperation and not to provide a vote where others then agree or do not agree.”

When asked what the AfD fire wall was, the CDU politician said, “the word fire wall is not used by me”. Fire wall is the wrong picture, he continued. “I want the fire behind the wall to not become a surface fire for all of Germany.” The coalition’s action in the past three years has “led the AfD to be over 20 percent,” said Merz.