and , leader of the Bavarian sister party the CSU, told supporters in Nuremberg on Saturday that an election win on February 23 would prove the best way to contain the rise of the far-right .
Both party leaders also vowed not to cooperate or ally in any way with the anti-immigration AfD.
At the same time, thousands protested against the CDU/CSU bloc around the country, angered by .
‘We are the firewall’ against the AfD, Söder says
Merz leads the CDU, which is closely allied with Söder’s CSU and does not compete in Bavaria to maximize CSU potential to win votes.
Merz, who hopes to become chancellor , traveled to Nuremberg, Bavaria to attend the CSU’s conference on Saturday.
— at around 30% barely two weeks ahead of — Merz said a change of course was needed in German politics.
Merz told the crowd his party would not consider “any kind of cooperation, let alone coalition” with the AfD.
“I would betray the soul of the CDU, if I were to reach out even with my little finger towards that kind of politics,” Merz said, having alluded to his party’s integral historical role in the building and the evolution of the European Union.
The far-right AfD is currently second in most national polls on roughly 20% support.
In Nuremberg, Söder said he would give a “guarantee” of “no cooperation” with the AfD.
“We are the protective barrier. We are the firewall,” Söder said, often used as shorthand for all the traditional political parties refusing to consider cooperating with the AfD.
Söder said only a conservative-led government and its resultant changes in policy would bring the AfD’s rising levels of support back down, arguing that if center-left coalitions continued to govern, the far-right party’s fortunes could improve.
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‘Grannies against the right’ rally in protest
Meanwhile, thousands gathered in a series of German cities for protests called by a group whose name translates as “Grannies against the right” (Omas gegen Rechts).
One group in Munster, far to the northwest of Nuremberg, held up placards using the very same words as Söder, saying “we are the firewall.”
The protests picked up pace after Merz and the CDU tried and failed to change German migration law from opposition, with AfD support, and have been more or less daily for around a week.
Another demonstration in the CSU’s heartland in Munich, under the motto “Munich is diverse!” attracted some 200,000 people, according to police estimates.
Back in Nuremberg, Merz also said he still planned to usher in a “turnaround in migration policy” after the elections.
He said he believed that center-left parties like the would realize, in the aftermath of the results, that such a change was needed and that they had been on the wrong path.
Scholz: No longer possible to trust Merz ruling out AfD cooperation
Meanwhile, SPD Chancellor told German news agency DPA that he no longer trusted the CDU or Merz on the issue of AfD cooperation.
“One this is very clear: After Mr. Merz broke his word, nobody can still trust that his word applies in the future on whether he would work with the AfD or not,” Scholz argued.
Scholz said this was “depressing,” because until just a few weeks ago he had always said he had complete confidence that the conservatives would continue to shun the AfD.
“But now I feel like all citizens: Evidently we cannot rely on this any more,” he said.
Edited by: Darko Janjevic
The post German conservatives insist they’re the anti-AfD ‘firewall’ appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
