Germany’s
Merz sparks firestorm by breaking postwar taboo
Germany’s
likely next chancellor wants tougher migration measures even with far-right
support, triggering a backlash ahead of a national election.
January 29,
2025 9:59 am CET
By Emily
Schultheis, Chris Lunday and Nette Nöstlinger
BERLIN — A
taboo-breaking gambit from Germany’s likely next chancellor to crack down on
migration with the help of far-right lawmakers has unleashed a fierce debate
that strikes at the core of the country’s postwar identity.
Germany’s
conservatives have introduced plans for tougher migration measures, with votes
from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party potentially giving their
leader, Friedrich Merz, the parliamentary majority he needs to sharply reduce
migration.
“Yes, it may
be that the AfD will for the first time make it possible for a necessary law to
be passed,” Merz said on Wednesday in a heated parliamentary debate. “But
ladies and gentlemen, we are faced with the choice of continuing to watch
helplessly as people in our country are threatened, injured and murdered,” he
went on, “or to stand up and do what is indisputably necessary in this matter.”
Merz’s
willingness to accept far-right support is hugely significant weeks ahead of a
national election because Germany’s mainstream political parties have long
sought to maintain a Brandmauer, or “firewall,” around the AfD — refusing even
to pass legislation with help from the party.
Merz’s
change of tack to accept such support is part of a pre-election effort to win
back voters who have defected to the far right over migration. But the tactic
has drawn heavy criticism from Merz’s left-leaning rivals, who accuse him of
breaking Germany’s post-war quarantine of the far right and forgetting the
lessons of the country’s dark history.
“It’s not a
matter of indifference who cooperates with the extreme right, not in Germany,”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “Since the founding of our republic over 75 years
ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats: we do not
make common cause with the extreme right in our parliaments.”
Rolf
Mützenich, the parliamentary leader from Scholz’s Social Democratic Party
(SPD), said Merz’s move puts the country on a “slippery slope.” The Greens also
condemned the move, while the center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP)
expressed willingness to support some of the measures up for a vote this week
despite AfD support.
‘Xenophobia
and conspiracy theories’
In the wake
of a deadly knife attack in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg last week
allegedly perpetrated by an Afghan man, Merz vowed to lead a major crackdown on
migration, which he links to crime, if he becomes chancellor.
Part of that
promise involves pushing three separate proposals in the Bundestag which would,
among other provisions, call for a blanket rejection of all asylum-seekers
arriving on Germany’s borders and indefinite detention for individuals who are
required to leave the country but either cannot be deported or refuse to leave
voluntarily. Likeliest to pass in the Bundestag is an immigration “influx
limitation law” on Friday.
Merz has
walked a complicated political tightrope in the days since announcing his
plans: He’s facing pressure to take a harder stance on migration in order to
keep the AfD from gaining further ground, but has also sought to maintain
distance from the party, arguing the AfD is a danger to German democracy. He
has worked to get other mainstream parties on board with his proposals, while
also suggesting he would pass tough migration measures without them if
necessary.
Germany’s
conservatives are leading the polls with 30 percent — putting Merz, the leader
of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), in pole position to become the next
chancellor — and the AfD is in second place with 20 percent.
Merz’s party
has sought to push back against the perception that it’s collaborating openly
with the AfD. In one migration-related proposal, the CDU explicitly criticized
the AfD as a party that “uses problems, worries and fears caused by illegal
migration to stir up xenophobia and spread conspiracy theories.”
And as he
discussed his legislative plans Tuesday, Merz said the CDU had shared its
proposals with the SPD, the Greens and the FDP — “but of course not the AfD, we
don’t discuss such topics with them.”
“I don’t
understand why [the SPD and the Greens] can’t get on board when we’re facing
such a threat to domestic security and order in our country,” Merz added,
saying these parties “need to ask themselves whether they want to vote for this
and finally take measures to get illegal migration in Germany under control.”
Despite one
CDU federal board member anonymously telling German media the move of accepting
AfD support to pass legislation is “political suicide,” the party has publicly
closed ranks around Merz’s strategy.
Hardening of
the battle lines
Jürgen
Hardt, a senior CDU parliamentarian, told POLITICO the move will help ensure
the mainstream parties stop losing votes to the AfD — and potentially even
bring some back.
“We’re
making sure no one else moves toward the AfD’s side, because they can find a
political answer to their urgent concerns within the democratic parties,” he
said.
AfD leaders
say they plan to vote for two of Merz’s anti-immigration proposals up for
debate this week.
“We will
demonstrate that there are majorities for sensible policies in this country
with the votes of the AfD, and only with the votes of the AfD,” Beatrix von
Storch, deputy parliamentary leader for the party, told POLITICO’s Berlin
Playbook podcast. “Unfortunately, it has now taken another tragic death, which
the CDU is now using as an opportunity to come around with a measure that
contains what the AfD has been calling for all along.”
The
hardening of battle lines on the issue of migration — with Merz, the AfD and
the FDP on one side, and the SPD and the Greens on another — sharpens the terms
of debate in the final weeks of the election campaign.
It may also
make it harder for Merz to form a governing coalition after the election. CDU
leaders have reiterated they are unwilling to enter into a governing coalition
with the AfD, leaving them to govern with the SPD or the Greens — or perhaps,
depending on the election outcome, even both parties.
This story
is being updated.
Rasmus
Buchsteiner and Pauline von Pezold contributed to this report.
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