CDU leader Merz stands by his party’s ban on cooperation with the AfD at state or federal level. In the municipalities, however, he advocates a pragmatic approach to elected AfD representatives, he said on ZDF.
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz has once again ruled out cooperation between his party and the AfD at state or federal level. “The AfD will not participate in a government, at least not with us. And they will not get a majority for it either,” he said in the ZDF summer interview.
But this taboo on working with the AfD only applies to legislative bodies – from the European Parliament to the state parliaments. At the municipal level, however, democratically elected officials of the AfD must be dealt with more pragmatically, according to Merz: “If a district administrator or mayor who belongs to the AfD is elected there, it goes without saying that one then looks for ways to continue working together in this city.”
The CDU chairman referred to the recent elections of an AfD district administrator in Thuringia and an AfD mayor in Saxony-Anhalt. These were democratic elections – “and we are of course obliged to accept the result of democratic elections,” said Merz. “Of course, the local parliaments then have to look for ways to shape the city and the district together.”
CDU leader admits weaknesses in his party
In view of the consistently good poll numbers for the AfD, Merz acknowledged current weaknesses in his own party. “We have to gain trust and win it back,” he said. “Trust is lost quickly and regained slowly. It’s an arduous journey.” Since he was elected party leader, the CDU has been “on the right track, but we still have to improve”.
The Union is “the largest opposition faction in the Bundestag,” said Merz. “This makes us the alternative to this federal government.” He once again took up a term that he had already used on Wednesday at the retreat of the CSU state group in Andechs Monastery in Upper Bavaria. At that time he called the Union the “alternative for Germany with substance”.
Merz continues against AfD ban
The CDU leader again rejected a ban on the AfD: “Party bans have never led to solving a political problem,” he said. The parliamentary group leader called a corresponding proposal by the CDU member of the Bundestag Marko Wanderwitz in the past few days “an individual opinion in the parliamentary group that we do not share”.