Rare intervention by former Chancellor Merkel in Germany's elections

31/1/2025 6:23

Former German Chancellor

Angela Merkel criticised Friedrich Merz, her successor as leader

of the country's conservatives, on Thursday for pushing through

a bill on tighter immigration control with the help of the far

right.



"I believe it is wrong," Merkel said, referring to the

outcome of a vote in parliament on Wednesday when a Christian

Democrat motion was passed with support from the nationalist

Alternative for Germany (AfD), breaking a long-held political

taboo in Germany.



Holocaust survivor Albrecht Weinberg, who survived Auschwitz

and Bergen-Belsen, returned his Federal Order of Merit medal to

the German state in protest, while Michel Friedman, a Jewish

community leader and member of the CDU's presidency in the 1990s

quit the party.



Berlin mayor Kai Wegener, a fellow conservative, also

indicated dissatisfaction.



"With me - you can rely on it - there will never be

cooperation or a coalition with the far-right," he said.



Christian Democrat leader Merz, frontrunner to become

Chancellor after the Feb. 23 election, rejected suggestions he

had breached mainstream parties' "firewall" against the AfD,

saying his bill was necessary, regardless of who chose to back

it.



In a rare intervention into domestic politics, Merkel

accused Merz of going back on a vow he made in November to seek

majorities with mainstream parties rather than with the AfD.



She urged "democratic parties" to work together to prevent

violent attacks like those recently seen in Magdeburg and

Aschaffenburg. In both instances, the suspects had applied for

asylum in Germany, bringing border and asylum policy into sharp

focus in the election campaign.



The AfD, which is polling second in most surveys behind

Merz's conservative bloc, is being monitored by German security

services on suspicion of right-wing extremism.



Thousands protested outside the CDU party's Berlin

headquarters on Thursday, prompting the police to urge staff to

leave work early for their own safety, a party official wrote on

social media.



Addressing a rally in Dresden, Merz told protesters they

were over-reacting.



"The right to demonstrate only goes so far," he said, adding

that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens

represented a "dwindling minority" in society.



The job of the conservatives, he said, was to ensure "a

party like the AfD is no longer needed in Germany."