Citizens “miss reminders”: Merz wedges against traffic lights because of AfD upswing

Citizens “miss reminders”
Merz wedges against traffic lights because of AfD upswing

For CDU boss Merz, the AfD poll high can be explained very easily: In a newsletter he shares against the traffic lights, especially the Greens. They operate with “popular educational attitude” clientele politics. Many used the cross on the AfD as a reminder.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz responded to the high AfD survey values ​​with a declaration of war on the Alternative for Germany and sharp criticism of the traffic light coalition. “On closer inspection, the causes have long been fairly clear,” he wrote in his newsletter “MerzMail”.

“A weak and constantly quarreling government triggers counter-reactions. With the AfD, the citizens can miss out on serious reminders. These reminders are currently hitting the Greens in particular,” who meanwhile only reached their own clientele, “but outside of them with their obtrusively presented popular educational attitude met with particularly strong resistance”. When “ordinary citizens” are no longer heard by the governing parties, they turn to those who are particularly sharply opposed to it.

On the question of why his party is not benefiting from the situation, Merz wrote that the CDU is held jointly responsible for the state of the country and that if they take counter-positions to the coalition, they are the same ones who constantly demand alternatives from them, “with the racism club at lightning speed and the ‘shift to the right’ accusation at hand”. “Such a narrowing of the climate of opinion only pays off for the AfD, and so the traffic light nourishes this party twice over.” One should not be frightened by a “narrow-minded opinion elite,” wrote Merz.

In the afternoon, Merz followed up on Twitter and claimed that with every gendered news program, a few hundred votes went to the AfD. “Gendered language and identitarian ideology are no longer just quietly rejected by a large majority of the population. They are perceived as encroaching,” Merz continued.

Lang: “Monocausal finger pointing”

He also made it clear that the CDU would not simply accept the strengthening of the AfD. “We stand up for our convictions with joy, optimism and the willingness to stand up at any time to anyone who wants to make a different country out of Germany, be it from the far left or the far right.”

Green leader Ricarda Lang tweeted: “Instead of pointing the finger at others and monocausally assigning blame, all democratic parties should, together, consider what effective strategies against the AfD look like.”

In an interview with ntv.de, political scientist Johannes Hillje recently explained that numerous reasons for the strengthening of the AfD played a role, such as the economic situation, trouble spots and social mood. In his eyes, Friedrich Merz’s party, the CDU, also plays a linguistic role if it adopts the tonality of the AfD and shifts from emphasis to populism in its opposition work. Specifically, Hillje said: “If the tone of voice of democratic parties is difficult to separate from that of the AfD, then that legitimizes their political rhetoric and goals.” As an example, he cited Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt, who had accused Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck of wanting to set up an “Energy Stasi” to look into people’s basements. “With such statements, the line to populist opposition is crossed,” said Hillje.

The AfD had recently reached 17 percent in the current Forsa survey for RTL and ntv. It was three percentage points ahead of the Greens and just one behind the SPD. In the ARD “Deutschlandtrend” it was 18 percent, in an INSA survey for “Bild am Sonntag” it was even 19 percent.

source site-34