parties
SPD leader Esken calls the CDU under Merz “extremely dangerous”
“Friedrich Merz’s CDU is developing in a way that I find questionable for a party that has held responsibility for many years,” says Saskia Esken. photo
© Moritz Frankenberg/dpa
At the beginning of December, SPD leader Esken accused the CDU and CSU of agitating against the traffic lights “in concert with the AfD”. CDU leader Merz called this “vile”. Esken is now upping the ante again.
SPD leader Saskia Esken has the CDU under her chairmanship Friedrich Merz described her as “extremely dangerous” for social cohesion and accused her of using the language of the AfD.
“Friedrich Merz’s CDU is developing in a way that I find questionable for a party that has been responsible for many years,” Esken told the German Press Agency. She leads debates about migration or citizens’ money, for example, in a way that pits people against each other.
“Linguistic derailments” in domestic politics
“This is extremely dangerous for political culture and social cohesion,” said Esken. “It is just as dangerous when the CDU and CSU bring terms into the debate that were previously used exclusively by the AfD.” This concerns the devaluation of the government, but also the devaluation of people. “I’m thinking of the insinuation of “social tourism”, the “little Pashas” or other linguistic derailments. Something like that is poison for our country and social cohesion.”
Esken emphasized that this was precisely why she had already sent clear words to Merz at the SPD party conference. At the beginning of December, the SPD leader accused the CDU and CSU of “rushing against the traffic lights in unison with the AfD.” Merz described the choice of words as “disgraceful” and “vile”. Esken simply said that she “notes how intensively he (Merz) followed our party conference.”
“Populist attacks” in foreign policy
However, Esken did not take back any of her allegations in the dpa interview. On the contrary: She also accused the Union of behavior that was damaging to the state in foreign policy: “The way in which fundamental opposition is pursued here, for example how the government is repeatedly demonstrated in public in an exceptional foreign policy situation such as Putin’s attack on Ukraine as hesitant and hesitant and not (as) responsible and prudent: I consider that to be politically irresponsible and it is damaging our country.”
In the past it was a given that the opposition and the government would stand together on foreign policy issues. “The CDU seems to have lost this part of our political culture. No government before this one had to put up with such populist attacks in such a crisis situation.” The SPD leader pointed out that “at the same time, leaders from all over the world such as the US President or the Ukrainian President himself attest to the Federal Chancellor that he is on their side and that he is able to forge international alliances that no one else would have achieved.” .
Nevertheless, offer of cooperation to Merz
Esken nevertheless offered the Union cooperation. “In principle, we are always ready to work with a constructive opposition.” However, the SPD leader criticized Merz for terminating cooperation with the traffic light government on the issue of migration. “Mr Merz should appreciate that compromises are made and not repeatedly demand a willingness to work together and then cancel it again,” she said. “On our side and especially on the government’s side, it still exists.”
At the beginning of September, Chancellor Olaf Scholz proposed a German pact to the Union to modernize the country and also met with Merz for discussions on the subject of migration. After the federal and state governments agreed on measures against irregular migration, Merz declared that cooperation on the issue had ended at the beginning of November. Scholz refused to set up a joint working group between the government and the Union to control immigration, he said as justification. “In my opinion, the German pact on migration is now over.”