Friedrich Merz, the parliamentary head of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is fighting to retain leadership of his party after calling for cooperation with the country’s “far-right” Alternative for Germany (AfD).
With the AfD now the second-most popular party in Germany in recent polls, Merz had advocated for the CDU to be open to working with it at the local level regardless of its right-wing credentials.
Despite then appearing to tone down his comments, Merz’s suggestion provoked days of uproar within his own party.
Speaking to Stern, CDU regional leader Tobias Hans has now publicly called into question whether Merz is still “suitable” to lead the party, accusing the politician of being prone to mistakes and “inexperienced”.
“Nowadays you have to tremble before every [Merz] summer interview because you don’t know what will come out of it at the end,” Hans, a former prime minister of the German state of Saarland, told the news outlet.
“To be honest, I don’t want to imagine that a chancellor appointed by the CDU would cause such concern,” he added.
Hans went on to say that the question of who would lead the party into Germany’s next federal election was “completely open”.
His pronouncements brought party-wide criticism of Merz to new heights, with CDU members across Germany furious at any suggestion that the group should work with the AfD.
Merz is not completely without support, with a number of local CDU representatives backing the leader’s calls for cooperation as “eminently sensible” and “necessary” in the current climate.
“I can only support Friedrich Merz’s statement to work constructively with the AfD at the municipal level,” one CDU city council leader told Bild, adding that he could not imagine how one could do anything but work with the populist party on pushing through small reforms for the benefit of a local area.
Local CDU politicians in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld have also said they are willing to work with the AfD, with the group seemingly having little choice after the populist party won its first mayoral election in the area earlier in July.
“Around 2,500 citizens in the Anhalt-Bitterfeld district town of Raguhn-Jeßnitz democratically decided in favour of an AfD mayor at the beginning of July – that is to be accepted. They’re not all Nazis,” CDU district administrator Andy Grabner said.
“I will work with the AfD mayor as well as with all other mayors, for the benefit of the city of Raguhn-Jeßnitz.”
Some outside the CDU have also backed Merz, with one district administrator for the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD) saying that smaller issues have to be prioritised over party politics at the local level.
“Merz is right, otherwise there would be a political standstill,” the SPD official remarked, calling criticism of the CDU leader “exaggerated”.
“He has described the reality as it is reflected in many places based on the voting decisions of the citizens,” the official added.
“Every district council member has the same rights. You shouldn’t always assign everyone their party colours.”
