Debate in Germany over tie-up between Merkel’s CDU, far-right

BERLIN: Until now, a possible tie-up between any of Germany’s mainstream parties and the rising far-right AfD movement has always been strictly seen as a political taboo. But what was previously unthinkable could eventually become a reality as Angela Merkel’s embattled centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party feels compelled to consider other power-sharing options. One possibility is an alliance with the fiercely anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), at least at a regional level.

Local elections in three states in the east of the country where polls suggest that the AfD could become the strongest political force — Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia — is forcing the CDU to re-think its stance. “We should not rule out a coalition” with the AfD, Ulrich Thomas, one of the regional leaders of the CDU in the central state of Saxony-Anhalt, told local daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. “It is not possible now, but we don’t know what the situation will be like in two or five years’ time.” For the time being, the CDU’s central leadership rules out any suggestions the party could join forces with the AfD, especially in the wake of the murder of local politician Walter Luebcke earlier this month, allegedly by a right-wing extremist.

But Saxony-Anhalt will elect a new regional parliament in 2021 and another local CDU leader, Lars-Joern Zimmer, pointed out that voters of his party and the AfD often held similar views and felt themselves to be part of Germany’s “conservative majority”. Recently, Germany’s former domestic spy chief and a member of the CDU’s right-wing, Hans-Georg Maassen, also refused to rule out an alliance at national level, saying “you never know”. — AFP