Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration joined in the political backlash after the leader of the opposition conservative bloc seemingly opened the door to cooperation with the far-right Alternative for Germany.
(Bloomberg) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration joined in the political backlash after the leader of the opposition conservative bloc seemingly opened the door to cooperation with the far-right Alternative for Germany.
Stefan Hebestreit, Scholz’s top spokesman, on Monday called on German political parties to have a clear stance on the far-right, taking a swipe at Friedrich Merz after the head of Germany’s Christian Democrats said that working together on the communal level is possible.
“The important thing is that one remains clear and doesn’t wobble,” Hebestreit said in a regular government press conference in Berlin.
Merz’s comments, made in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, were seen as softening the ban on working with the the anti-immigration, anti-Europe party. Its the latest sign of how mainstream parties are struggling to response to the AfD’s surge in support.
Other conservative politicians lashed out. Tobias Hans, former state premier of Saarland, called the stance “not bearable,” and Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder rejected cooperation with the AfD “no matter what political level.” AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla welcomed the comments, saying they showed that “firsts stones in the firewall” were falling.
After the wave of criticism, Merz sought to row back his comments, saying on Twitter that he stands by the CDU’s commitments that reject cooperation with the party.
Support for the AfD surged to a record 22% in a recent poll, widening its lead over all three parties in Scholz’s ruling coalition and closing the gap to the CDU-led bloc.
The recent advances have been fueled chiefly by discontent over issues ranging from record immigration, persistently high inflation and costly climate-protection measures. Coalition infighting, including a drawn-out feud over measures to shift household heating away from fossil fuels, has further irritated voters.
But Merz has also had a confusing approach and seemed to inflate the party’s importance by calling the CDU — home of chancellors including Angela Merkel and Helmut Kohl — as “the Alternative for Germany but with substance.”
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