{"id":417947,"date":"2025-02-05T08:23:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T07:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/05\/germania-elezioni-merz-weidel-cdu-afd\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T12:17:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T11:17:51","slug":"germany-political-debate-intensifies-ahead-of-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/05\/germany-political-debate-intensifies-ahead-of-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany: political debate intensifies ahead of elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0Less than\u00a0three weeks before the elections, in Germany, the debate is more heated than ever about the collapse of the “cordon sanitaire”<\/strong>\u00a0that has prevented any political collaboration with the far right <\/strong>since the end of World War II. The gamble by Friedrich Merz<\/strong>, the conservative leader in all likelihood destined to become the next federal chancellor<\/strong>, to try to win a parliamentary vote with AfD support has triggered cross-criticism from other parties<\/strong> and set in motion mass<\/strong>\u00a0street protests<\/strong>. However,\u00a0as the ultra-right leader’s popularity grows, the Christian Democrats’ approval rating among voters drops (slightly).<\/p>\n

Last week was particularly intense for\u00a0German politics, some 20 days before the early elections for the Bundestag<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a0Feb. 23. According to polls, it will bring the Christian Democratic Union (CDU\/CSU)<\/strong> back to power after the decidedly lackluster interregnum of the “Traffic Light<\/strong>\u00a0coalition<\/strong>” led by outgoing Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Backstory: On\u00a0Jan. 29, Friedrich Merz<\/strong>‘s party\u00a0succeeded in\u00a0narrowly passing<\/a> two non-binding motions calling for a<\/strong> vigorous crackdown on irregular immigration<\/strong>, thanks to the decisive support of MPs from Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland<\/i> (AfD<\/strong>), the xenophobic and pro-Russian post-Nazi ultra-right. A\u00a0couple of days later, due to the defection<\/a> of a handful of rebellious conservative MPs, the Bundestag refused to pass those motions<\/i><\/strong> into law, dealing a severe blow to the line the likely future chancellor has decided to take on the migration issue.<\/p>\n

\"Alice<\/a>
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel (photo: Michele Tantussi\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But it was like opening\u00a0Pandora’s box<\/strong>. After the widespread\u00a0condemnations\u00a0of Merz<\/strong> from all sides of the political spectrum–including the friendly fire<\/strong> of several members of his party, notably from<\/a> Angela Merkel\u00a0<\/strong>— for undermining 80 years of collective efforts by German democratic forces since 1945 to keep the radical right<\/strong> out of the perimeter of power after the horrors of the Third Reich<\/i>,\u00a0mass<\/strong>\u00a0protests<\/strong> also erupted.<\/p>\n

Crowds of protesters poured into all major cities, and, in Berlin,\u00a0at least 160 thousand citizens marched<\/a> from the Bundestag<\/i> to the headquarters of the CDU\u00a0holding\u00a0anti-AfD placards and chanting slogans against Merz’s move<\/strong>, deemed dangerous to the resilience of German democracy. In response, the leader of the Christian Democrats did nothing better than<\/a> taking it out on his fellow citizens<\/strong> who\u00a0responded to the mobilization, accusing them of hypocrisy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“I say to all those who were out yesterday: you picked the wrong date and the wrong issue<\/strong>,” he said in the aftermath of the marches, drawing an awkward comparison between anti-AfD demonstrations and those against anti-Semitism<\/strong> which, he says, would not be as well attended: “Where is the revolt of decent people,” he wondered, in the face of “an unprecedented hatred of Israel<\/strong>” that “makes us deeply ashamed” but “against which the reaction has been too hesitant<\/strong>?”<\/p>\n

\"Merz<\/a>
An election poster depicting the Chancellor candidate of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, who has been drawn a moustache reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s (photo: John MacDougall\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the outrage over the flirtation with the ultra-right may already have caused concrete effects<\/strong>: according to\u00a0the first survey<\/a> following the events, the Chancellor’s Party (Chancellor’s Party) lost two percentage points in virtual voter approval<\/strong>, dropping from 30 to 28 percent, while the AfD remains firmly in second place<\/strong> with 20 percent. Similarly, Merz’s personal approval rating dropped three points<\/strong> to 22 percent, on par with the Greens’ chancellor candidate (as well as outgoing Economy Minister) Robert Habeck<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand,\u00a0the biggest beneficiary\u00a0of the latest developments has undoubtedly been Alice Weidel<\/strong>, the AfD co-leader who has now been at the center\u00a0of German and European news for weeks\u00a0thanks to her “blessing”<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Elon Musk<\/strong>. The right-hand man of US President Donald Trump —<\/strong> the owner of X, SpaceX,\u00a0and Tesla, as well as the wealthiest man in the world — sent shivers down the spines\u00a0worldwide by\u00a0performing\u00a0a double Nazi salute at the inauguration ceremony of his new boss<\/strong>, thanking the fan base<\/i> of the so-called “MAGA people,” the very same group that stormed the Capitol\u00a0on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the failure of the vote in the House, Weidel did not miss the\u00a0opportunity to mock the Christian Democratic leader,<\/strong> saying it implies “the dismantling of Friedrich Merz as chancellor candidate<\/strong>” and “the implosion” of the Chancellor’s party<\/strong>, stressing that in the AfD, “there are no dissidents who stab a legitimate cause in the back.”<\/p>\n

\n

Looking forward to your visit, @Alice_Weidel<\/a>!
\nBerlin has always been a city of walls. It’s time to tear another one down!https:\/\/t.co\/2uwsP03mmd<\/a><\/p>\n

– Viktor Orb\u00e1n (@PM_ViktorOrban) February 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ahead of the ballot box appointment, the co-president of the German ultra-right received<\/a> an invitation to Budapest<\/strong>\u00a0next week, where she will meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who\u00a0<\/strong>did not spare attestations of esteem<\/strong> for her. “Berlin has always been a city of walls. It’s time to tear down another one<\/strong>,” the Hungarian premier wrote yesterday on X.<\/p>\n

Although part of two different political groups in Europe, Orb\u00e1n and Weidel – members respectively of the Patriots for Europe (PfE)<\/strong> and the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN)<\/strong> – share, among other things, a profound hostility towards immigrants<\/strong>, especially those of the Muslim faith, and an ambiguous closeness with Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s Russia, with which they hope to resume political and economic relations as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “scandal” of the alignment in the Bundestag between the center-right CDU and the far-right AfD triggered widespread condemnations and protests against Friedrich Merz. While the popularity of Alice Weidel, who was invited to Budapest by the Hungarian premier, does not diminish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":403012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26475,26580,26267,26471,26472,29715,29635],"class_list":["post-417947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alice-weidel-and","tag-cdu-en-2","tag-election-germany-2025-en","tag-friedrich-merz-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417947"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417979,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417947\/revisions\/417979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}