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CDU leader Friedrich Merz
Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP
As soon as the event was announced, it had to be canceled again: CDU leader Friedrich Merz withdrew his previously announced participation in a discussion forum to which the controversial US Senator Lindsey Graham was invited, among others.
This was confirmed to SPIEGEL by party circles.
Merz has an appointment with Graham when he comes to Berlin at the end of August, tweeted Merz's spokesman Armin Peter.
However, Merz will not meet Graham as part of the event - "participation has been canceled due to the changed program".
The fact that Merz initially wanted to take part had triggered criticism in the past few days.
"Anyone who takes part in such events makes themselves politically impossible," said Green MP Konstantin von Notz to the editorial network Germany.
Republican politician Graham is considered a supporter of former US President Donald Trump.
After the 2020 presidential election, Graham is said to have tried in the background to have postal votes disqualified in Georgia in order to decide the tight race in the US state in Trump's favour.
The discussion forum with Graham and Merz should now deal with the transatlantic relationship, among other things.
In addition to the American politician Graham, the right-wing conservative publicist Henryk M. Broder was also invited to the round, as was the lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel, who is located in the new right spectrum.
However, Merz was not aware of the participation of such guests beforehand, according to people close to the party leader.
It is important to him to distance himself from positions close to the AfD and that is why he decided against participating in the panel.
Baden-Württemberg's state representation wants to withdraw from the lease
The event was planned by the conservative agency »The Republic« and was to take place in the Berlin state representation of Baden-Württemberg.
Apparently, they no longer want the event to take place in their own home.
»After the organizer informed us of the other speakers of the Transatlantic Forum on August 31st.
called, we will withdraw from the rental contract and not let the event take place with us, "wrote the state representation on Twitter.
“The speakers now mentioned are very close to the AfD.
The event is therefore likely to damage the reputation of the state representation.«
On Monday, the “Pioneer” portal quoted the Baden-Württemberg representative at the federal level, Rudi Hoogvliet, as saying that the state representation “is permissive” about who they let into the house.
Basically, you support when different opinions meet.
so-called
