Cracks appear in the CDU’s ‘firewall’ against Germany’s far-right AfD

Three former high-ranking politicians and officials from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party have said it is time for conservatives to develop a new strategy for dealing with the AfD, seriously intensifying the internal debate over the “firewall” strategy.

The “firewall” (Brandmauer) means that mainstream German parties refuse to form coalitions with “radical” parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at the federal and state levels or to pass laws with their help.

Although this firewall has significant cracks at the local level, especially in the eastern states, Merz has largely adhered to this policy since taking office.

German officials have faced harsh criticism, including from members of the Trump administration. In Munich last February, Elon Musk joined a conversation with US Vice President JD Vance and AfD leader Alice Weidel, where Vance criticized the firewall as “a tool to disenfranchise voters.”

Speaking to Stern magazine last week, conservative figures opened a debate on the CDU/CSU bloc’s stance toward the AfD.

“The higher the firewall, the stronger the AfD becomes,” said historian and former Merz advisor Andreas Rödder. According to Rödder, conservatives should be “willing to engage in dialogue” with the AfD, provided the party agrees to certain conditions and abandons its “extremist” positions.

Former CSU General Secretary and former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg argues that excluding the AfD only serves to strengthen it, stating, “It is not possible to demystify through boycotting.”

The main argument of conservatives advocating for a rethink of the firewall strategy can be summarized as follows: allowing AfD politicians to oppose the system from the outside “without engaging in the complex compromises inherent to politics” does nothing but strengthen the party.

At the same time, the conservatives’ refusal to cooperate with the AfD forces the CDU/CSU to govern with left-wing parties, providing the far-right with more material for attacks.

The situation is further complicated as the AfD increasingly emerges as the leading party in polls. Peter Tauber, Angela Merkel’s former general secretary, also believes that establishing a “new relationship” with the AfD is “necessary from a state policy perspective.” Stern notes that a previously unknown feeling has emerged within the CDU/CSU bloc: the fear of a “split.”

Researchers from the Berlin Science Center and Harvard University evaluated a total of 11,053 district and municipal council meetings between 2019 and 2024. The result: nearly one-fifth (19%) of AfD motions received approval from the CDU and other “democratic” parties.

These motions concerned personnel issues, substantive proposals, and budgets. “Apparently, the AfD has long been in power in local governments as well,” comments Stern.

Two Mondays ago, Udo Witschas, the CDU district chairman in Bautzen, Saxony, caused a scandal in the district council. He was asked to comment on a photograph taken during a motorcycle trip with Karsten Hilse, an AfD district council member and Member of the Federal Parliament who is under surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Witschas had not hidden the photo; on the contrary, he had hung it in his office and shared it online. Witschas said he could not understand the excitement. According to him, Hilse was not “far-right.” In his view, there is not a single “right-wing, left-wing, or extremist” person in the district council.

AfD politicians are naturally pleased with the conservatives’ concerns. Bernd Baumann, the AfD’s parliamentary group leader, told POLITICO Bulletin that the CDU is in a “self-inflicted existential crisis.”

“First, it campaigns with right-wing positions taken from the AfD. After being elected, it builds a firewall against the AfD. In coalition with the SPD, it implements the exact opposite of its election promises,” Baumann said.

Co-chairwoman Weidel is also certain that the CDU cannot continue on this path. “The Union will no longer be able to reject us. I see a changed CDU after the short-lived Merz era as a potential partner,” Weidel told Stern.

Historian Rödder wants the CDU to finally impose “its own game” on the AfD while it still has the strength. In this context, he says the party should signal a “readiness for conditional dialogue” to the AfD.

“If the AfD respects the red lines and clearly distances itself from far-right positions and figures, seeking dialogue and conducting a tough debate on the matter is a valuable democratic endeavor. Strategically, it is also wiser to throw the fire of the directional debate at the AfD,” says Rödder.

According to the historian, only in this way can the AfD be forced to decide “which direction it wants to go: extremist or democratic?”

On the other hand, a large part of the CDU leadership is still distancing itself from Rödder’s ideas, fearing that his theses will be the beginning of the end for the “firewall.”

Leading Christian Democrats vehemently oppose the impression that the party is looking for a way to politically utilize a calculated right-wing majority.

CDU deputy chairwoman Karin Prien warns, “The AfD is the exact opposite of the middle class [bürgerlich].” Therefore, there can be no middle-class majority with the AfD.

Kiel’s state premier, Daniel Günther, says, “We have a clear stance against the AfD, and that will not change. Anyone who takes democratic responsibility seriously cannot do business with a party that undermines our institutions and trust in the state.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also reaffirmed the firewall against the AfD.

Following a closed-door CDU meeting in Berlin, Merz said that the two parties differ not in details but in “fundamental political beliefs” and suggested that the AfD wants to destroy the CDU.