Scholz
blasts Merz, raising doubts over post-election German coalition
Social
Democrat chancellor launches stinging attack on conservative leader over deal
with far-right AfD.
January 30,
2025 10:22 am CET
By Chris
Lunday
https://www.politico.eu/article/olaf-scholz-friedrich-merz-post-election-coalition-germany/
BERLIN —
With Germany’s election less than a month away, center-left Chancellor Olaf
Scholz has thrown cold water on the prospect of reviving the country’s
traditional grand coalition — bluntly declaring that he “can’t trust”
conservative leader Friedrich Merz anymore.
His remarks
come after the Bundestag narrowly approved a nonbinding motion presented by the
conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) to allow asylum-seekers to be
turned back at the border.
The measure
passed 348 to 344, with the conservatives garnering support from the far-right
Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the fiscally conservative Free Democrats
(FDP) — an unprecedented alignment that Scholz labeled a “historic breach of
taboo.”
“The
consensus that democratic parties do not cooperate with the extreme right was
broken today,” Scholz said late Wednesday night in an interview with German
public broadcaster ARD. “Merz had repeatedly assured that this wouldn’t happen.
That’s why I can’t trust him anymore, although I did a week ago.”
The vote
marked the first time ever the CDU actively pushed through legislation with AfD
backing, despite Merz’s repeated pledges to keep the far-right party at arm’s
length. Scholz accused the CDU of “deliberately accepting” AfD support to get
its policy through parliament.
For years,
Germany’s mainstream parties have upheld a strict firewall against the far
right, refusing coalitions or cooperation at any level to prevent its
normalization. But as the AfD surges in polls and wins local elections, cracks
are emerging.
Merz’s
conservative CDU is leading in the national polls, making him the front-runner
to form a government after the Feb. 23 vote. But with no party expected to
secure an outright majority, a CDU-SPD grand coalition — last seen under
Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 to 2021 — has been floated as a stabilizing
option.
Scholz’s
sharp rhetoric, however, signals fractures that could make such an alliance
unworkable.
“My goal now
is to prevent a majority of CDU and AfD at all costs,” he said, hinting at a
protracted power struggle ahead. If the chancellor holds to that stance,
Germany could face weeks — if not months — of political gridlock.
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