Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized her center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) for using the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to push a hard-line migration motion through parliament.
Merkel noted that party leader Friedrich Merz had said in November that no measures should be passed with the AfD’s support before the February 23 election, adding “I think it was wrong to no longer feel bound by this proposal.”
AfD cheers breakthrough after parliament vote on migration
Rare intervention
“This proposal and the attitude associated with it were an expression of great national political responsibility, which I fully support,” Merkel said in a statement released by her office.
She said breaking with the pledge had led to a first-time “majority with votes from the AfD in a vote in the German Bundestag.”
Her remarks comes after Merz on Wednesday put to a vote a nonbinding motion that calls for Germany to turn back many more migrants at its borders, knowing it might need the AfD’s backing to pass.
Support from the far-right party enabled the measure to pass by three votes.
Merkel’s statement was a rare intervention from the former German leader, who has kept a low profile since leaving office.
‘Merz made a mistake’: DW political editor
DW political editor Michaela Küfner said on X, formerly Twitter, that the criticism by Merkel, who is still a widely respected political figure in Germany, could damage Merz’s standing within the party.
Küfner later said Merkel’s condemnation was a major blow to Merz.
“Her outright condemnation that he is ‘wrong’ to accept votes from the far-right AfD Party will alienate voters literally left, right and center,” Küfner said.
“He may have relaunched the conservative CDU/CSU by distancing it from the Merkel years. But the shadow of the historic stateswoman looms large,” she argued, adding that Merz had made a mistake by breaking his own promise not to seek a parliamentary majority with AfD participation.
“Unless his strategy is now swiftly validated through a sharp rise in the polls for his conservative CDU/CSU and falling support for the AfD, Merz will be stuck with the label of a traitor to the democratic center,” Küfner said, saying “the coming weeks will become a moment of truth for the conservative CDU and for Germany.”
Merz takes CDU on more hard-line migration course
Merz took over the CDU after Merkel, with whom he had often been at odds, stepped down as chancellor in 2021.
He has since taken a more restrictive stance on migration, saying last week that Germany has had a “misguided asylum and immigration policy” for a decade, seemingly in reference to Merkel’s decision in 2015 to allow large numbers of refugees, many fleeing the Syrian civil war, into the country.
Migration has become a major issue in the German election campaign ahead of the vote on February 23 after a string of attacks attributed to suspects with migrant backgrounds, including a deadly knife attack in Aschaffenburg a week ago.
Merkel demanded “that all democratic parties work together across party political boundaries, not as a tactical maneuver, but honestly, moderately and on the basis of applicable European law, to do everything possible to prevent such terrible attacks.”
tj/wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)