Several influential CDU and CSU representatives advocate for normalizing dealings with the AfD. They criticize the current stigmatization and suggest redefining red lines to avoid parliamentary blockades. This comes ahead of state elections in the east, where the AfD is strong in polls.
The AfD is significantly pressuring CDU and CSU in polls, with some surveys seeing it as the strongest force nationwide. Ahead of state elections in the east next year, the Christian Democrats face a potential debacle. Now, prominent Union representatives are pushing for a change in approach to the right-wing extremist party.
Former CDU General Secretary Peter Tauber told the 'Stern': 'The current stigmatization only helps the AfD.' He advocates for a new policy of red lines that would allow passing resolutions the AfD agrees to, without 'the Nazi club being swung' every time. The 51-year-old fears parliamentary blockades like in DDR times and calls for an agreement among all parties on a new dealing with the AfD.
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, former CSU Federal Defense Minister, recommends considering minority governments after the eastern elections. 'That's never desirable. But whoever doesn't think this scenario through to the end risks falling into a trap,' he told the 'Stern.' He emphasizes: 'Demystification doesn't succeed through boycott.' Zu Guttenberg calls for stronger substantive confrontation while adhering to the CDU's incompatibility resolution, but suggests thematic majorities, possibly with AfD votes.
Historian Andreas Rödder, chairman of the Union-affiliated think tank Republik21 and former head of the CDU's basic values commission, criticizes: 'The higher the firewall has been built, the stronger the AfD has become.' If the AfD holds red lines and distances itself from right-extremist positions, it is 'worth a democratic attempt to seek conversation.'
Friedrich Merz, at the beginning of the year as opposition leader, passed a migration proposal with AfD help and faced criticism. The Union leadership officially sticks to the exclusion principle, with the incompatibility resolution prohibiting coalitions or similar cooperation. In January this year, the Bundestag passed a Union proposal for stricter migration policy with AfD votes, which critics called the end of the firewall. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel urges sharp demarcation in a Spiegel top interview: The AfD distinguishes between people and elites and questions full citizenship for naturalized citizens, 'that disturbs democracy.'