As of: February 4, 2024, 11:40 a.m
By: Florian Naumann
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Only the AfD is taboo: Friedrich Merz is thinking out loud about future majorities for a “policy change”.
And about a temporary exit from the FDP.
Berlin - CDU leader Friedrich Merz made his coalition preferences known a good 20 months before the federal election - and in doing so gave his desired partner a questionable assessment.
Merz also did not want to exclude the SPD and the Greens as the Union's government partners.
But the AfD does.
Merz wants the Union to be “twice as strong” as the Greens and SPD – pact with AfD excluded
As a right-wing radical party, the AfD stands outside every conceivable spectrum for us,” wrote the CDU leader in his weekly newsletter “MerzMail” published on Saturday evening (February 3).
The party leader emphasized that the Union would not commit to a coalition partner before the election.
Merz stated that his goal was for the CDU to be at least twice as strong as the SPD and the Greens in the next Bundestag.
The party would then be in a good position to implement a “policy change” in Germany.
Merz wants the FDP as a partner – “But it is questionable whether it will survive as a party”
There should be no firm coalition statement before the election.
“Even a coalition must not be left without alternatives,” wrote Merz.
If the Union could then hold coalition talks with several potential partners after the election, this would make it possible to “explore the best success in the interests of the CDU”.
In his statement, the CDU leader nevertheless indicated a preference for a coalition with Christian Lindner's FDP.
With it “a bourgeois coalition could most likely be realized,” he wrote, but added: “It is questionable, however, whether it will survive as a party.” The Liberals had recently remained below the five percent threshold in several surveys.
Greens and SPD for Merz conceivable if necessary: CDU boss praises action in Hesse
If the FDP actually had to go back into the extra-parliamentary opposition, the only options remaining were the SPD and the Greens.
“Not a particularly tempting prospect,” wrote Merz, “but there must be a majority capable of governing.”
Merz had in the meantime explicitly declared the Greens to be his political opponent.
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Merz referred to the Hessian CDU, which negotiated with the SPD and the Greens "in a ratio of two to one" after the state elections in the fall and ultimately asserted its signature in the government alliance with the SPD.
It was right at the time that the Hesse CDU did not rule out a coalition with the Greens from the outset - as many members had demanded.
(
AFP/fn
)