The German Bundestag – the main chamber of parliament – has voted in favour of a proposal by the Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party for stricter immigration laws.
The proposal was accepted on January 29, with the votes of the CDU, the Liberal FDP and the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) parties.
It marked the first time in Germany since the Second World War that centrist parties had joined forces with right-wingers to attain a majority. The Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Left all voted against the CDU proposal.
Previously, all parties in parliament had been committed to exclude AfD from the political process – a stance commonly referred to as a “cordon sanitaire” or “brandmauer” (firewall).
The concept was introduced by the Left after the AfD’s founding in 2013, supposedly as a way for all democrats to join forces against the threat to the republic allegedly posed by right-wingers.
In practice it meant that no decision could be taken against the wishes of left-wing parties even if the centre-right had a clear majority in parliament – because overruling the Left with the votes of AfD was considered taboo for the CDU and FDP.
Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor in the February 23 elections, called the cordon sanitaire “an anti-democratic cartel agreement” in the January 29 Bundestag session.
The CDU proposal encompassed five measures designed to curb illegal immigration to Germany. It was originally presented on January 23 by CDU leader Friedrich Merz in the wake of the fatal stabbing of a two-year-old boy, allegedly by an illegal Afghan immigrant in Aschaffenburg a day earlier.
The measures included the introduction of permanent border controls and mandatory custody for illegal migrants.
Merz said he would put the measures into place immediately should he become chancellor.
The January 29 vote, though, is merely a non-binding demand to the current government, led by SPD and the Greens, to make the five points law – and therefore has no immediate real-world consequences.
Left-wingers still said they were shocked by the break-down of the brandmauer, calling it a “fateful day for Germany” and a “dam breach”.
Merz countered that he could no longer reconcile with his conscience that only matters agreed upon with SPD and Greens could be put to a vote in parliament. “We have to do everything to curb illegal migration,” he said.
Despite the trumpeted importance of the vote, numerous MPs were absent, including nine from SPD and two from the Greens. The final ballot only saw a majority of four in favour of the CDU proposal.
Whether it marked a general change-of-mind for the CDU and FDP remains to be seen. Sixteen Conservative and Liberal MPs also absented themselves from the vote.
Within CDU there still was a strong block of left-leaning politicians whom it appeared would much rather co-operate with the SPD and the Greens than veer Right.
In the February elections, the CDU is polled to get 29 per cent of the vote. the AfD is at 21 per cent.
If Merz continued to rule out a coalition with the right-wingers, observers said his only remaining options currently were with either the Social Democrats or the Greens.
BUNDESTAGSWAHL | Sonntagsfrage Forschungsgruppe Wahlen/ZDF
Union: 29% (-1)
AfD: 21%
SPD: 15%
GRÜNE: 14%
LINKE: 5%
FDP: 4%
BSW: 4% (+1)
Sonstige: 8%Änderungen zur letzten Umfrage vom 24. Januar 2025
Verlauf: https://t.co/f9MV7iZ8iJ#btw25 pic.twitter.com/hpCqivpn5F
— Deutschland Wählt (@Wahlen_DE) January 30, 2025
He became the leader of CDU in 2022 after leaving politics in 2009 when he was effectively pushed out by then-chancellor Angela Merkel.
He subsequently became a corporate lawyer and was on the boards of several high-ranking German companies, including investment company BlackRock and HSBC bank.
Merz is married and has three children. If he became chancellor, he would be the first chancellor since Helmut Kohl – who stepped down in 1998 – with biological children.
Previous chancellors Gerhard Schröder, Merkel and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz do not have any offspring of their own, which one commentator has quipped might be the reason for some family-unfriendly politics of the past.
