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CDU/CSU vote with AfD: End of post-war taboo in Germany?

2025-01-31 21:59:26Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
CDU/CSU vote with AfD: End of post-war taboo in Germany?
Merz in the Bundestag

Thousands of people are protesting in Germany against a CDU/CSU collaboration with the AfD. But the parliamentary elections will be decided by the silent majority, writes Auron Dodi.

The conservative CDU/CSU parties imposed a tougher immigration policy in the Bundestag (January 29th) with the AfD's votes. This came a week after a two-year-old child and a man were stabbed to death in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, by an asylum seeker who was due to be deported.

This move is criticized as breaking a historical taboo: the CDU/CSU entered a vote unsupported by the center and left parties, but supported by the AfD, a party with far-right elements. The CDU/CSU took this into account and, according to critics, broke the cordon sanitaire, refusing to make common cause with the AfD.

Almost everyone agrees that a tougher or more effective migration policy is needed in Germany. Even Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted in the Bundestag that the recent attacks in Germany should have been prevented. However, not taking into account the support of the AfD.

Merz enters a danger and causes a revolt

But CDU chairman Friedrich Merz argued that "a right content does not become wrong because the wrong people vote for it." He used the same logic for the law to restrict migration on Friday. The law failed in the vote, with only 338 MPs voting in favor, 349 against. Merz said, however, that citizens would believe that his party "is serious about turning around asylum and migration policy." The law, among other things, would end family reunification for people in Germany who have not been granted asylum but are allowed to stay in Germany for other reasons for the time being. 

The protests by left-wing parties, political and cultural figures, and thousands of demonstrators in various cities across Germany are massive. Over 6,000 people protested in front of the CDU headquarters in Berlin on Thursday. Over 6,500 people were in Frankfurt am Main. Over 5,000 people protested in Leipzig. Many other protests against a collaboration with the AfD have been announced in other major cities.

CDU/CSU vote with AfD: End of post-war taboo in Germany?
Over 6,000 people protested on Thursday (30.01.) in front of the CDU building in Berlin

In a letter, the Protestant and Catholic churches complain that the path is now paved for the denigration of all migrants. One Holocaust survivor said he would surrender his Federal Cross of Merit in protest.

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel, in one of her rare statements, was harsh on her party, the CDU, which has changed. She called it "wrong" for the CDU to accept, for the first time, a majority with the AfD's votes.

What does the CDU/CSU want?

In a five-point plan, the conservatives demand that all undocumented immigrants be turned away at the German border. So that in the future, an asylum application will no longer be sufficient to enter Germany. Permanent border controls are called for. As well as detention for refugees who are to be deported until deportation.

The motion on Wednesday (29.01.) was approved by a margin of three votes: 348 MPs voted in favor: 187 from the CDU/CSU, 80 from the FDP and 75 from the AfD. 345 voted against.

After this, the AfD went into triumphant expression. AfD MP Bernd Baumann declared that "this is a historic moment. A new era begins and the AfD is its standard-bearer."

CDU/CSU vote with AfD: End of post-war taboo in Germany?
AfD went into triumphant expression. AfD in the Bundestag after the vote

Although this reaction from the AfD was expected after the vote, an unpleasant situation arose in the Bundestag. CDU leader and leading contender for Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, took to the podium and said that he regretted the vote, but that the left should have shown itself responsible in the vote.

Previously, Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz had accused Merz of making "an unforgivable mistake." Scholz recalled that the measures violate the German constitution and European laws.

Taboo and political culture

The Bundestag's decision has symbolic power. It does not legally obligate the German government to anything.

But in the electoral campaign before the parliamentary elections on February 23, the debate over "political culture" in Germany has been opened. What will be considered permissible for today's Germany, with its Nazi past over 80 years ago?

We are dealing with a taboo breaking. Which marks, most likely, a turning point in the electoral campaign for the parliamentary elections. A CDU member, quoted by the media, said that the elections were decided this week. "I just don't know in which direction."

How is this explained? The motion by Friedrich Merz, the chairman of the CDU, touches on two central topics for Germany: first, asylum and migration policy, which has become the main one after the murders by foreigners last year and this year.

Secondly, it touches on the basic principle of Germany's democratic identity: non-cooperation with the far right.

The CDU/CSU did not cooperate with the AfD in the vote, the text of the motion explicitly calls the AfD an opponent. The CDU/CSU has declared its non-cooperation with the AfD even now. But the fact that the CDU/CSU knew that it could only win with the support of the AfD and accepted this, goes a long way for many people.

Decisive for the elections: the silent majority

Did the CDU/CSU harm itself and its chances of coming to power with this motion?

This will depend on the circumstances, how much the CDU/CSU and those who consider the decision fair will be able to argue. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper wrote on Friday that municipalities suffering from the large number of migrants should have their say now.

But the success or failure of the CDU/CSU will ultimately depend on what those people who are not (yet) speaking out publicly really think. The current strengthening of the AfD, the fact that the AfD is coming in second in the polls, comes from somewhere.

57% of Germans believe it is right that people without documents should be denied entry to Germany in principle (according to ARD-"Deutschlandtrend").

The protests these days by thousands of people show that Germany has a vibrant and active democracy. At the same time, the historic mass demonstrations a year ago against the AfD's "remigration" plans did not harm the AfD in the long run.

Dangers for the CDU, opportunities for left-wing parties

The predictions for these elections remain difficult. Merz's action is associated with risks for the CDU. He could add votes to the CDU/CSU, responding to the concern of many Germans in the face of crime and assassinations.

But he also unexpectedly offers the left a chance to retaliate. Chancellor Scholz seized the moment in the Bundestag and Merz suddenly appeared on the defensive. Merz "cannot be trusted anymore, will he cooperate with the AfD," said Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The SPD, the Greens, and the left as a whole have a chance. A chance if they can successfully portray the conservatives as disruptors of the fundamental consensus of the German Democrats: no cooperation with the far right.

The CDU/CSU lost one point after the vote and currently stands at 29%. The SPD gained one point and stands at 17%; the AfD remains at 22%; the Greens stand at 13%, the FDP at 4% (Insa Institute poll, 30.01.).

Polls: voters are divided

Despite the sensational protests: almost half of the respondents questioned in the current RTL/ntv "Trendbarometer" poll say it was right that the CDU/CSU imposed the migration motion with the AfD's votes. In other words: 46 percent support that the CDU/CSU consciously accepted the AfD's support when it voted in the Bundestag for its migration policy motion. 50 percent, on the other hand, think that this was wrong.

This shows that only on voting day will the real stance of voters be known.

The CDU says it does not want a situation like in Austria, where the far-right is forming a government. The unionist parties are interested in weakening support for the AfD. It remains to be seen whether they can achieve this./ DW

 

 

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