CDU leader Friedrich Merz considers cooperation with the AfD to be out of the question. © Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
In a survey, the AfD is on a par with the Social Democrats. The CDU/CSU justifies this with the weakness of the traffic light government - and at the same time distances itself from the party on the right.
Berlin - CDU leader Friedrich Merz has once again clearly rejected cooperation with the AfD. "As long as I am party chairman of the CDU, there will be no cooperation with this party," Merz said yesterday evening in the ZDF "heute journal" in view of the recent relatively high poll values for the AfD.
Merz said of the AfD: "This party is xenophobic. This party is anti-Semitic. We have nothing to do with these people, and there will be no cooperation here - under the hand, above the hand, on the table, under the table with me and not us."
Suspected right-wing extremist case
In the ARD "Germany trend", the AfD had recently caught up with the SPD with 18 percent. The Insa survey for the "Bild am Sonntag" sees the party, which is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist suspected case, at 19 percent, on a par with the SPD. The Union is at 27 percent in the Insa survey.
Merz reiterated that the cause of the AfD's strength was mainly the weakness of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's traffic light government. "If we had a government that worked well in terms of craftsmanship and politics, then the AfD would not be at 18 percent." Merz mentioned in particular the Greens in the government. "People in Germany are simply tired of this kind of paternalism. And they're venting about that now."
"We don't use AfD-speak"
Merz rejected the accusation that the Union used the AfD's choice of words when criticizing the government. "We don't use AfD-speak." He said he was not prepared to accept that the Union would immediately be brought close to the AfD with any criticism of the government. Sometimes, even in the ranks of the Union, exaggerations are made. However, the Union is clear on the matter, remains capable of talking the next day and is ready to make compromises with the government.
In the migration debate, Merz backed a proposal by Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) to establish a commission of federal, state and local governments for a new asylum policy. He is happy to make this suggestion his own, Merz said. "But if the Greens, for example, permanently and insistently claim that we have no problem at all, that we are not even prepared to talk about reducing immigration at the federal level, let alone make decisions, then the problem will become bigger and with the growing problem, the AfD will get bigger." dpa
