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Friedrich Merz: “We can only reach AfD voters to a very limited extent at the moment”
Photo: LISI NIESNER / REUTERS
"Excluding a party is not easy, but we are currently carefully examining what options we have": CDU leader Friedrich Merz clearly distances himself from the former President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, in the "Bild am Sonntag".
He had just been elected the new chairman of the ultra-right “Union of Values”.
"This is the limit.
We asked Mr. Maassen to leave the party, "said Merz, according to the newspaper.
Maassen's language and ideas no longer have a place in the CDU.
Maassen had repeatedly attracted attention with right-wing and anti-Semitic statements.
Most recently, his successor as President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned of damage to the authority.
»The AfD is firmly on the side of Russia«
At the same time, in the "BamS" interview, Merz moved away from his intention to halve the AfD.
"I haven't repeated that statement since 2018," said Merz.
»The extremist structures and the radical right-wing rhetoric in the AfD are solidifying.
The AfD is firmly on Russia's side and is mobilizing primarily in East Germany." Merz, on the other hand, wants to stick to the Union's course of "clearly distinguishing ourselves from the far right."
"We can only reach the voters of the AfD to a very limited extent at the moment," said Merz.
However, he made it clear in the interview that Merz stands for a strictly conservative profile of the Union.
The CDU leader defended his controversial statement about "little pashas" and called for more control of migration.
»When it comes to immigration, we have to make a clear distinction: who do we need?
And who needs us?” said Merz.
"Anyone who has no right to asylum must leave the country again."
Germany, on the other hand, needs immigration into the labor market on a larger scale than before.
»It has to be well organized and, of course, linked to a sincere welcoming culture.«
A performance by Merz, in which he described children of migrants as “little pashas”, caused a lot of criticism.
Merz does not want to recognize a blanket condemnation in the statement.
"I'm not talking 'generally' about little pashas, but again and again about the millions of immigrants who are very well integrated with us," says Merz.
»My description of the problems that we have in many schools in our country, for example, is confirmed in the hundreds of letters I have received in the last two weeks, some with drastic examples.
We have to solve these problems.«
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