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Parties: CDU leader Merz: Cooperation with AfD “unimaginable”

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CDU leader Merz: Cooperation with AfD “unimaginable”

CDU leader Friedrich Merz rejects cooperation with the AfD. photo

© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

“The CDU would sell its soul”: Party leader Friedrich Merz distances himself clearly from possible cooperation with the AfD.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz rules out any collaboration between his party and the AfD as “unimaginable”. “The CDU would sell its soul if it worked with this party,” he told the “Augsburger Allgemeine.” “These are people who do not clearly distance themselves from National Socialism. People who want to abolish Europe. People who want to make common cause with Putin,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “How is the CDU supposed to do politics together with this party? It’s unimaginable!”

When asked about a controversial vote in the Thuringian state parliament, in which a proposal from the opposition CDU to reduce the real estate transfer tax with the approval of the AfD found a majority, Merz said: “There has been no cooperation with the AfD in Thuringia either.” The Thuringian CDU first held talks with the SPD and the Greens. That didn’t help. “Then the CDU submitted a motion to the state parliament that corresponds to our convictions.” His party “does not allow one side or the other to dictate which political positions we take.”

The Thuringian AfD is classified and monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the Free State as definitely right-wing extremist. The red-red-green government in Erfurt does not have its own majority.

Merz expressed his rejection of a proposal by historian Andreas Rödder, head of the CDU Basic Values Commission, who can also imagine CDU minority governments that are tolerated by the AfD. “That’s an absolute no-go!” said Merz.

In voter surveys, the AfD currently has approval ratings of 19 to 22 percent, while the CDU/CSU parties reach between 27 and 30 percent.

CDU Vice President Jung: “There must be no shift to the right”

The CDU’s deputy federal chairman, Andreas Jung, had previously warned against a shift in the party to the right. “There must be no shift to the right in the CDU, our place is in the middle – as a people’s party with the C,” he told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”.

Jung also distanced himself from Rödder’s considerations. “That would be ruin for the CDU,” said Jung. “The firewall remains, we must never make ourselves dependent on the AfD. There must be no wobbling.”

The AfD stands for the opposite of what the CDU represents, said Jung. In its Charter of Fundamental Values, the CDU is clearly committed to the Christian view of humanity, to moderation and center, and to opposing the enemies of an open society. “We stand for cohesion, the AfD promotes division. There can be no cooperation.”