“I consider that it is wrong to abandon this commitment and, therefore, to knowingly allow a majority with AFD votes in the Bundestag for the first time,” said Merkel in a statement on what the Germans Call the “firewall” supposed to close on AFD.
Merkel referred to an agreement that Merz concluded in November 2024, when he explicitly committed to preventing AFD from playing a decisive role in the Bundestag votes. “This proposal and the position associated with it were the expression of a great political responsibility of the State, which I fully support in its entirety,” she added.
Politico contacted the Merz team, who refused to comment on the issue.
Merz and Merkel disagree inside the CDU at least since 2002, when Merkel has indeed exiled it from the party leadership. Since the return of Merz in 2022, he has moved the party significantly to the right, in many ways, canceling the centrist heritage of Merkel – in particular with regard to the question of migration.
The CDU has consolidated around Merz, and the criticism of current leaders for its desire to accept extreme right support for anti-immigration measures was relatively starry. It is unlikely that Merkel’s intervention prevents the right change of his party, but this could well feed an internal debate on the role of the conservatives in the weakening of the firewall on the far right.
The controversy of the firewall broke out this week after the CDU introduced a proposal to rejection of asylum seekers on the border.
