The leader of the centre-right opposition CDU party in Germany, Friedrich Merz has defended once again his recent move to side with the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in pushing through a motion aimed at curbing illegal migration, but said he would never enter into a coalition with the party.
Merz was speaking in his first direct TV debate with Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday, February 9th, ahead of the parliamentary elections on February 23rd.
Scholz accused him of breaking his promise never to cooperate with the AfD and tearing down the cordon sanitaire surrounding the party. In response, Merz said he had been driven to act quickly and had to accept the votes of the AfD to pass the anti-immigration motion after the murder of a two-year-old by an Afghan failed asylum seeker in the city of Aschaffenburg.
“I could no longer justify it with my conscience,” Merz said, but added that he would not cooperate or govern with the AfD, because “there is no common ground, we are worlds apart on the issues concerning Europe, NATO, the euro, Russia, America.”
Migration has become one of the hot topics of the election campaign followed by a