The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Monday adopted an “immediate program” on immigration and the economy that its candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, wants to implement after Germany’s February 23 election.
Merz’s conservative bloc — also including the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the CSU — is the favorite to lead a new government.
However, the center-right CDU/CSU alliance has drawn criticism over its immigration law proposals that won support in a parliamentary vote from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) last Wednesday.
What happened at the conference?
Delegates voted unanimously for the 15-point plan by a show of hands, the party conference leadership said.
The proposals include measures to limit irregular migration, stimulate the economy and strengthen internal security.
However, addressing the conference, Merz promised there would be “no cooperation, there is no tolerance, there is no minority government, nothing at all,” when it came to working with the AfD.
The CDU, he said, wants to “do everything in this election campaign in particular to make this party as small as possible again.”
“I can assure voters in Germany of one thing very clearly: We will not work with the party that calls itself the Alternative for Germany. Not before, not after, never,” Merz shouted to sustained applause from the almost 1,000 delegates who had risen from their seats.
On Germany’s economy, which has shrunk for the last two years, Merz said policy would be judged on whether it “serves to strengthen the competitiveness of our industry or harm it.”
Bavarian State Premier Markus Söder on Monday said only the CDU/CSU alliance could stem the growth of the AfD.
“We must not leave our country to the AfD,” Söder told the conference. He also said the bloc would continue to rule out coalitions with the AfD.
“We keep saying no, no, no to any form of cooperation with the AfD.”
The AfD’s support for the CDU/CSU’s nonbinding motion in parliament to severely restrict irregular migration was a historic first that sparked protests across the country. Lawmakers on Friday narrowly rejected a subsequent migration bill proposed by the CDU/CSU, which also saw support from the AfD.
Protesters say CDU should feel ‘shame’
Critics have accused Merz and his party of breaking a long-standing “firewall” in Germany preventing mainstream cooperation with the far right.
Protests against the party’s new direction took place across Germany, with organizers claiming up to 250,000 participants at a major march in Berlin on Sunday.
Mass rallies saw tens of thousands of protesters holding signs with slogans such as “Shame on you, CDU” and “We are the firewall.”
There were more demonstrations on Monday outside the CDU’s conference center in western Berlin, where police reporting some 450 protesters had assembled.
Environmentalist, left-leaning parties gain members after Merz’s AfD gambit
“At the very least, Merz has energized potential voters of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens who are both struggling in the polls,” DW Chief Political Editor Michaela Küfner said after Merz’s gambit with the AfD last week. Küfner was at the party conference in Berlin.
“On paper, Merz should have struck a chord with voters. Polls show that more than two-thirds want the very measures on migration Merz is proposing,” Kuefner added. “The open question now is whether he will gain enough support to cancel out doubts over his commitment to the firewall.”
Germany’s environmentalist Green Party and the Left Party on Monday both reported a surge in membership as the conservative migration policy plans appeared to give them a boost.
The Greens, whose approval ratings have taken a sharp hit during their time as part of a fractious unpopular coalition, reported having received a record number of 5,000 membership applications between Wednesday and Sunday.
The Left Party, which has been polling below the 5% threshold typically needed to take seats in Germany’s lower house of parliament, also reported more than 11,000 new members over the past two weeks.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
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