CDU ally Kretschmer sparks row by urging coalition talks with far-right AfD

Michael Kretschmer, a key ally of Friedrich Merz, has ignited a fierce political debate after suggesting that conservatives should cooperate with Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Kretschmer, the premier of Saxony and a prominent member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is directly challenging Merz’s insistence on maintaining a political “firewall” (Brandmauer) against the surging AfD ahead of critical September elections that could see the party capture a state premiership for the first time.

“Those who still talk about firewalls have not recognized the signs of the times. We must talk to everyone who wants to talk,” Kretschmer, who heads a minority government in Saxony, said in an interview with the newspaper Handelsblatt earlier this week.

According to Politico, Kretschmer’s remarks have inflamed the very tensions Merz has spent months working to contain.

Merz refuses to cooperate with the far right, citing Germany’s Nazi past. However, political realities in eastern Germany are exerting mounting pressure on him to reconsider this stance.

Polls indicate that the AfD has a viable chance of securing an absolute majority in Saxony-Anhalt on Sept. 6, while also being positioned for strong performances in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin later that month.

At the national level, Politico’s Poll of Polls places the AfD as the most popular party with 28% support, compared to 22% for the Christian Democrats.

For now, Merz remains firm in his position, maintaining that Germany bears a “special historical responsibility” and therefore cannot follow the path of other EU member states where the far right collaborates with the centrist mainstream.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, the Chancellor stated:

“An extreme-right party entering government in Germany carries an entirely different meaning than if it were to happen in another country. This is tied to our history, which is why it serves as neither a benchmark, an example, nor a lesson for me to draw from. It is, quite simply, a different situation. I will do everything in my power to prevent this in Germany.”

Instead, Merz argued that the government’s objective must be to foster an environment in which the far right can be defeated.

“Between now and Sept. 6, we will work to facilitate and ensure stable political conditions in both Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” Merz said.

Yet the reality on the ground in the campaign battlegrounds reveals that the AfD leads all rival parties by a wide margin in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt (41%) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (36%).

The territory of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) has long functioned as a stronghold for the right. It is also where the AfD’s party apparatus and policy positions are at their most radical.

Regional party branches in four of the five eastern German states are officially classified as “extremist right-wing” organizations by domestic intelligence agencies.

In Saxony-Anhalt, polling places the party within range of winning an absolute parliamentary majority.

Such an outcome would enable the party to assume state-level power for the first time since its founding in 2013.

Even if the AfD falls short of an absolute majority in Saxony-Anhalt, Merz’s conservatives face a difficult political dynamic in September: to keep the far right from power, they would be forced to cooperate with the Left Party (Die Linke).

The Left Party is also exceptionally strong in the east, and conservatives continue to maintain a “firewall” against it as well, anchored in a formal 2018 party convention resolution.

Addressing potential cooperation with the Left Party last week, Merz said: “We have clear party congress resolutions on this matter, and I have no reason to doubt that we will abide by them.”

However, regional politicians within his own party are increasingly questioning whether such pledges can be sustained given the strength of parties at both ends of the political spectrum.

Kretschmer’s comments are widely viewed as an attempt to initiate a debate on how to govern after the September elections without abandoning campaign pledges entirely or further damaging the CDU’s credibility.

This initiative has met resistance from party leadership in Berlin.

Steffen Bilger, a deputy leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, told Deutschlandfunk on Thursday:

“We are currently in the middle of a fierce political struggle in three states, specifically with or against the AfD. Rather than opening up discussions of this nature right now, that is where our focus should remain.”

Meanwhile, politicians from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) have demanded clarity from their federal coalition partners.

The SPD’s lead candidate for the Berlin election urged the CDU to “state clearly” whether it still rules out regional cooperation with the AfD, while simultaneously calling on the party to open itself to the far left.

Steffen Krach, the SPD head of the Hanover region, said: “The CDU must finally acknowledge that it can cooperate with the Left Party, because it is already doing so,” pointing to the minority governments the party formed in Saxony and Thuringia.

“Anyone who demonizes the Left Party today and equates it with the AfD is deceiving the electorate,” the SPD politician added.

For its part, the AfD has adopted a composed stance amid the ongoing controversy, declaring through a spokesperson to German news outlets that the party remains open to talks with anyone willing to engage.

However, Torben Braga, an AfD lawmaker from the eastern state of Thuringia, argued that given the party’s current strength, supporting a minority government in Saxony-Anhalt after the September elections would not serve its strategic interests.

“I do not understand why a party like the AfD, which is polling near an absolute majority, should settle for enabling a minority government to stay in power by providing a majority without participating in executive decisions,” Braga said. “That would not be in the interest of our voters.”