Germany’s parliament descended into heckles and recriminations on Wednesday after a “firewall” against working with the far-right cracked.
A non-binding motion calling for tougher border and asylum rules passed with support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). During the stormy session, politicians of various parties hurled criticism and blame at each other.
Conservative CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who tabled the plans, defended his actions as “necessary”. But Chancellor Olaf Scholz slammed the move as an “unforgivable mistake”.
Merz now plans to propose actual legislation on Friday – again with possible AfD backing – aimed at curbing immigration numbers and family reunion rights.
But his proposed measures are highly unlikely to come into effect this side of February’s snap election and – if they did – could clash with EU law.
Referring to the AfD’s support for the motion, the CDU leader told the Bundestag that a policy wasn’t wrong just because the “wrong people back it”.
“How many more children have to become victims of such acts of violence before you also believe there is a threat to public safety and order?” he asked.
The CDU leader – tipped to be Germany’s next chancellor because of his party’s leading position in the polls – has also insisted he has neither sought nor wants AfD support.
“Thinking about how the AfD fraction will cheer and their happy faces makes me feel uncomfortable,” he told lawmakers.
Chancellor Scholz – a social democrat whose coalition government collapsed last year – castigated Merz for his actions.
“Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany over 75 years ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats in our parliaments: we do not make common cause with the far right.”
Germany’s already fraught debate on immigration has flared up following a series of fatal attacks where the suspect is an asylum-seeker, most recently in the city of Aschaffenburg.
It has become a central issue in campaigning for the election, triggered by the collapse of Scholz’s governing coalition.
Wednesday’s CDU motion, supported by the AfD and liberal FDP, called for a “ban” on anyone entering Germany without the right documents – but it cannot compel the current minority government to act.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the firewall against the far-right in German political culture. Remembrance of the Holocaust plays a fundamental role in modern Germany.
Before Wednesday’s vote, the Bundestag held its yearly commemoration for the victims of the Nazis, during which 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Roman Schwarzmann addressed parliament.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also delivered a speech to MPs, calling for the Nazis’ crimes never to be forgotten. There should be no “line drawn” ending our historical responsibility as Germans, he said.
This directly contradicts the policy of the AfD, which has criticised German memory culture and argued for a broader view of the country’s history.
That’s partly why so many were shocked when Friedrich Merz said last week that he didn’t care if the AfD supported his parliamentary motions or not.
This contradicts not only his previous statements, but also the official line of his party, which bans the conservatives from relying on the far-right in parliamentary votes.
Sections of the AfD have been classed as right-wing extremists by domestic intelligence, but the party is currently polling second, although Merz has ruled out any kind of coalition with them.
This week, latest polls showed that support for the conservative CDU had slipped a couple of percentage points to 28%, while the AfD increased slightly to 20%.
AfD leader Alice Weidel has said the firewall amounts to an “anti-democratic cartel agreement” and has predicted it will crumble over the coming years.
Opening the door to leaning on support from the far-right is a gamble for Merz, who believes that his increasingly radical stance on migration will win back right-wingers who are tempted to vote for the AfD.
But in so doing, he could risk losing support from the centre.
With these latest parliamentary motions, Merz has definitively said goodbye to the era of his more centrist conservative predecessor Angela Merkel, who a decade ago famously said “wir schaffen das” or “we can do it” when Germany was faced with large numbers of migrants and refugees.
These motions are symbolic, signalling what the conservatives would like to do in power. But they are also a concrete signal to voters about who Merz appears prepared to accept support from.
Critics say he has broken his word on the firewall. No wonder the AfD cheered in parliament when the result was announced.
