“Party is radicalizing”
Kretschmer excludes cooperation with AfD
06/18/2023 11:04 am
The AfD is currently experiencing a high in polls. In Saxony, it could even become the strongest force in the upcoming state elections. This causes Prime Minister Kretschmer and his CDU government to panic. No matter what happens, there will be no coalition with the AfD, he emphasizes.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer has clearly rejected cooperation with the AfD in his state. “Cooperation with the AfD is and remains out of the question for the Union,” said Kretschmer of “Bild am Sonntag”. “This is a party that is becoming increasingly radical,” he continued. That’s scary. “These people shouldn’t be held accountable.”
The CSU also distanced itself from the right-wing populists. This demarcation is “of central importance for the Union as a party of the middle of society,” said regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt of the newspaper. “An immovable right-wing firewall is part of our very essence,” he added. “The AfD is the political opponent of the Union and not a partner.”
Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger from the Free Voters, on the other hand, doesn’t think much of a firewall against the AfD. “It simply doesn’t work because the CDU no longer has a conservative profile,” he told the “Bild am Sonntag”.
“Racist and right-wing extremist goals”
The AfD had recently reached new highs in several polls. In the ZDF “political barometer” published on Friday, she came to 18 percent. In the east, the AfD is even ahead across the board. State elections will be held in Bavaria in October, and in Saxony next year.
71 percent of those surveyed find it good and 25 percent not good that the CDU rejects coalitions or other forms of cooperation with the AfD. Union supporters clearly reject cooperation with the AfD, with only 14 percent in favor of a possible coalition.
The rejection is no coincidence: just last week, the German Institute for Human Rights presented an analysis of the AfD, which said: The AfD now meets the requirements for a ban because of its “racist and right-wing extremist goals”. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution had already taken on the party: At the end of April, the Federal Office classified the Institute for State Policy (IfS) and the association “One Percent” – both with connections to the AfD – as well as the AfD youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) as right-wing extremists .