Comment: Merz will no longer be able to break the taboo

For weeks, CDU boss Merz has been providing the accompanying music for the AfD poll high. Even if he has now corrected his statements about a collaboration: he will no longer be able to capture the breaking of the taboo.

It is unclear when the CDU’s “fire wall” against the AfD first cracked. Was it 2019 when the two deputy group leaders of the CDU in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt wanted to “reconcile the social with the national”? With an internal discussion paper, they basically called on their party to align itself more closely with the AfD.

Or was it last December when the majority of the CDU parliamentary group there voted in the district council in Bautzen, Saxony, to cut integration services for people who were required to leave the country? The AfD had submitted the application.

Or was it on Sunday when party leader Friedrich Merz said in the ZDF summer interview that local parliaments also had to look for ways to shape the city, the state, the district together – also with the AfD? The federal decision of 2018, with which the party has imposed itself not to work with either the left or the AfD, does not apply at local level.

So far, little or no consequences for the AfD approach

As party leader, Merz wanted to throw anyone out of the party who “raises your hand to work with the AfD”. He had just said that to the East CDU before taking office. But it didn’t come to that.

At the same time, Merz has now corrected his statements from Sunday – after heavy criticism from outside, but also within the CDU and CSU. But that doesn’t change the fact that he initially only described what has long been reality.

In recent years there have been dozens of individual cases where other parties voted or coordinated with the AfD more or less directly. This not only affects the CDU – but particularly often. It is also the only party in which officials and elected representatives repeatedly initiate debates about the relationship with the AfD. In most cases, nothing happened.

The reaction in Berlin to the vote in Bautzen was appalled. At the state level, there should also have been clarifying talks. However, there were no resignations or party exclusion procedures. The two faction deputies in Saxony-Anhalt only had to vacate their posts two years later – after Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff had won the state election with a clear anti-AfD course.

With his statements, Merz has now subsequently legitimized all previous collaborations. And, therein lies the real power, he opens the door to those CDU local politicians who have so far held back from voting with the AfD.

It’s not just about streets and daycare centers

The individual case counts. Of course you have to talk to an AfD district administrator or mayor on site. Not only in the CDU. Only the highest officials do not govern their communities alone. They depend on majorities in district, city and municipal councils.

It’s about playgrounds, streets and daycare centers, as von Merz emphasizes. But it is also about the accommodation of asylum seekers, the design of public toilets, community social services, bike paths, the installation of wind turbines and partnerships with Russian communities. In short: debates are taking place even at the municipal level that can currently be politically charged and that the AfD is trying to occupy.

There is also a risk of a domino effect. With the state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia next year, some CDU politicians want to switch from local politics to the state parliament, who already openly consider the “firewall” to be impractical. Some also include the demarcation from the Left Party, others do not.

They are not yet set up as candidates, but they must see themselves strengthened by Merz. The AfD-open CDU camp within the state parliament could grow in this way. And if the election of the FDP Prime Minister for a short time with votes from the CDU and AfD in Thuringia in 2020 showed one thing, it was that Berlin party headquarters have no access to parliamentary groups. Especially not when, as in the case of the CDU, these are largely made up of directly elected MPs.

Merz’s own people are annoyed

In the eastern German states, where the AfD has been strong for years, a different approach has long been maintained: the party was often ignored, and outside of the election campaign it was hardly mentioned at all. At best, people worried about the voters when a new poll just came out. In Saxony or Brandenburg, however, this happens every few months – and not several times a week like in the federal government.

Merz, however, has been blundering after blunder in dealing with the AfD for weeks. He wrote the AfD in a circular mail to the “heavy reminder”. He presented an “Agenda for Germany”, in short: AfD. Merz only called the Union an “alternative for Germany with substance” on Thursday. And now the new statements.

Merz thus provides the accompaniment to the poll high of the extreme right-wing party. How he does it makes the AfD celebrate. He normalizes the extreme right-wing party despite all statements to the contrary.

Even party friends who otherwise agree with Merz in terms of content are annoyed by the actions of the CDU leader in the background. And those who reject these positions showed it more vehemently than ever on Sunday evening.

Only the AfD benefits from the Merz course. And Olaf Scholz. Because Merz is so present, hardly anyone is asking what the SPD Chancellor actually intends to do about the tense situation nationwide.