No one-off collaboration
Berlin’s mayor calls for a clear edge against AfD
8/3/2023 3:58 am
Is the Union’s firewall to the AfD still standing? CDU boss Merz raises doubts about this in an interview. Berlin’s governing mayor is trying to get this out of the way. According to the Governing Mayor, there should also be no cooperation with the far-right party at the municipal level.
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner rules out cooperation with the AfD, even on individual points. “Unfortunately, the AfD is represented in many local councils or district councils and various parties, including the SPD, Greens and Left Party, have voted with the AfD on a selective basis. That has to end,” said the CDU state chairman to the editorial network Germany (RND). “In Berlin there will never be any cooperation with the AfD with me.” Wegner emphasized: “The firewall to the AfD is not crumbling.”
Statements by CDU leader Friedrich Merz in the ZDF summer interview on how to deal with the AfD in the municipalities could be interpreted as a softening of the clear demarcation of the CDU from right-wing populists. After fierce criticism from his own ranks, Merz assured that his party’s incompatibility decision applies. A party conference resolution from 2018 states: “Germany’s CDU rejects coalitions and similar forms of cooperation with both the Left Party and the Alternative for Germany.”
The AfD is classified and observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist. The governing mayor warned that the high polls for the far-right party were damaging Germany’s reputation in the world. The task of the CDU is to win back the trust of the people at state and federal level so that the CDU can form governments from the middle. “The CDU always wins elections in the middle,” said Wegner. He was sure that CDU leader Merz and Secretary General Carsten Linnemann knew that. In election polls, the CDU/CSU are currently at 25 to 27 percent, the AfD at 20 to 21 percent.
The political scientist Karl-Rudolf Korte meanwhile confirmed that the Union had no concrete proposals for solving problems. “The Union defends itself with delimitation decisions,” said the scientist from the University of Duisburg-Essen to the RND with a view to the question of how to deal with the AfD. “But attractive perception includes offensive topics: solution-oriented offers against fears of transformation.”
Wegner calls for suspension of the debt brake
In an interview with the RND, Wegner also advocated putting the debt brake on hold. “We have to suspend the debt brake at the federal level to enable investments,” said the CDU state leader. He could imagine a period of five years for this. Investments in new schools, housing subsidies and help for a secure and affordable energy supply are necessary.
The debt brake anchored in the Basic Law allows new borrowing within a narrow range of 0.35 percent of gross domestic product. CDU leader Merz considers compliance with the debt brake to be important. “The debt brake is an obstacle if we want to secure and strengthen Germany as an industrial location,” said Wegner. “If the Federal Minister of Finance (Christian Lindner) continues like this, he will be the gravedigger of Germany as an industrial location.”