The uncertainty in the Union is almost palpable. And that not only applies to dealing with the AfD and the previous ban on cooperation. Some are already asking whether the authority of their chairman can still be saved after his erroneous declarations.
You can imagine the CDU spokesman these days as a squad of disaster relief workers. Uncertainty has swept through the party, as after a flood, and with it a flood of public statements of protest. How to deal with the AfD? And how badly damaged is the authority of the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz? At the weekend, Merz first signaled that there would also be common ground with the AfD in local politics if the election results were appropriate – only to correct this later. Since then, representatives of the CDU and CSU have been trying to somehow save the situation and have been swearing by the right-wing demarcation to the best of their ability. But Merz got his people in trouble and possibly himself.