Friedrich Merz (archive) dts
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Berlin (German news agency) – Representatives of the CDU, SPD and Left Party have sharply rejected the statement by CDU leader Friedrich Merz that they would tolerate cooperation with the AfD at the local level. “The CDU chairman is also bound by the decisions of the CDU federal party conference. This has categorically ruled out any political cooperation with the AfD,” former CDU Secretary General Ruprecht Polenz told the Tagesspiegel (Monday edition): “This also applies to cities and communities. The CDU has a special responsibility for our democracy here.”
Dietmar Bartsch, leader of the left parliamentary group, told the Tagesspiegel: “Merz’s right-wing firewall is getting huge holes. It’s a matter of time before it collapses.”
The SPD parliamentary group leader in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jochen Ott, also questioned the “firewall” to the AfD proclaimed by Merz: “I am very dismayed by Mr. Merz’s statements and hope that the CDU does not betray its own principles here,” Ott told the Tagesspiegel: “Whenever it mattered in history, many conservatives did not stand. That must not be repeated. This would also expose the oath of the firewall in the federal and state governments as gossip.” In the ZDF “summer interview”, the CDU leader had once again ruled out cooperation between his party and the AfD at state or federal level, but added that local parliaments had to look for ways “to shape the city, the state and the district together”.
The democratic election of AfD officials is to be accepted.
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