“I consider it wrong to abandon this commitment and, as a result, to knowingly allow a majority with AfD votes in the Bundestag for the first time on January 29,” Merkel said in a statement about the crumbling anti-AfD firewall.
She referred to an agreement Merz made in November 2024, when he explicitly pledged to prevent the AfD from playing a decisive role in Bundestag votes. “This proposal and the stance associated with it were an expression of great state political responsibility, which I fully support in its entirety,” she added.
POLITICO reached out to Merz’s team, who declined to comment on the matter.
The controversy erupted after the CDU introduced a proposal aimed at tightening Germany’s asylum policies by increasing border rejections of asylum-seekers.
Though nonbinding, the Bundestag vote marked the first time the CDU relied on AfD votes to push through a motion — a symbolic rupture with Merkel’s centrist legacy and the party’s long-standing refusal to work with the far right.
For the AfD, the vote was a watershed moment. “Now begins a new era,” proclaimed Bernd Baumann, a senior AfD lawmaker. The party has seized on the moment as proof that its hard-line stance on migration is gaining mainstream legitimacy.
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