An important rule for building walls is to know when you are walling someone out and when you are walling yourself in. Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s conservative CDU and likely next chancellor, is about to find this out the hard way. After two people — including a two-year-old child — were killed in a stabbing incident in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg and three more seriously injured, the German public is understandably angry.
Over the last 12 months there have been similar fatal stabbings in cities such as Solingen and Mannheim, while last month’s attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, which killed six people, remains fresh in the memory. In all these earlier cases the perpetrators had a migrant background, and now a failed Afghan asylum seeker has been arrested for the Aschaffenburg attack. He is reported to have deliberately targeted nursery children visiting a park.
A growing number of Germans now support a reduction in immigration and the deportation of foreign criminals from the country. Merz has promised to reduce illegal migration to zero on day one of his chancellorship, but why wait that long? A CDU-sponsored bill to reduce the number of illegal entries into Germany has been ready for a vote since November, but Merz refuses to bring it to the floor of the Bundestag out of fear that the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) could vote for it along with his own party. This would be tantamount to dissolving the “firewall”, the overused term by CDU/CSU politicians describing their policy of no cooperation with the AfD.
For a moment after the attack in Aschaffenburg, Merz appeared to change his tune, proposing a five-point plan and announcing that he would work with anyone who went along with it. According to this proposal, there would be a de facto entry ban for anyone without valid entry documents, as well as controls at all borders. The federal police would have the right to apply for arrest warrants for people apprehended at the border or airports, and the number of places in custody pending deportation would be increased. Meanwhile, offenders and dangerous individuals who are obliged to leave the country should be detained indefinitely. Merz also said that “deportations and returns must take place on a daily basis,” with the federal government making its own contribution.
Calling the CDU’s bluff, the AfD’s Alice Weidel yesterday sent an open letter addressing Merz in which she suggested that most of these points could already be made law with existing parliamentary majorities, and that it is unnecessary to wait for the results of the next month’s elections.
As expected, the CDU rejected the offer , calling it “poisoned”. Yet refusing this offer may prove more poisonous than accepting it. The “firewall” increasingly resembles an obsession for Merz, who now comes across as a politician who would rather risk German lives than vote for a single bill alongside a particular rival party. What he considers a strategy could easily be interpreted as aloof arrogance, indicative of a conservative party which believes it is entitled to rule.
Many Germans are fully aware that the country’s ongoing problems with migration have come as a direct consequence of Angela Merkel’s 2015 open-borders policy. The former CDU leader caused the problems, and the current leader refuses to solve them unless he is made chancellor. This attempt to essentially blackmail the more than 20% of the electorate which supports the AfD into voting for the CDU could backfire. Merz may think he is walling the AfD out, but it is equally likely that he is walling himself in, and that he and his party will realise this once election results come in on 23 February.
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SubscribeI’m no fan of the AfD (or the FPÖ for that matter) but this complete obsession with keeping out the far-right (yes, that is the correct description for these parties) is doing more harm than it’s preventing.
I’ll bet there are a good few Germans looking over to their little alpine neighbour thinking that we’re actually doing the right thing. Let them in, let them govern. If they’re rubbish (and I expect they probably will be), we’ll vote them out again.
I’m sure you’re correct – that they wouldn’t be able to govern. But the only parties which will govern well will be those which have governed for the last 20 years, because they have had plenty of practice. I’m think that in the UK many people are saying the same about Reform. Let them in, get them out, forget them.
Not much of a future is it?
Who are these “many people” you claim to know about?
I say this, with no particular reference to Reform or any other party, but what your point relates to involves the very essence of democracy: let’s not bother, let’s just let the authoritarians take over as the permanent party of power.
I think “many people” would sooner shudder at that outlook. A changing political landscape is nothing to be afraid of, and nothing new. Without the possibility of such change, all that our forebears fought and died for is lost.
How about the millions who don’t vote? You forget that UnHerders are a very, very tiny minority of people who care. Most people I speak to say, “I’ll vote Labour because I’ve always voted Labour and my father voted Labour.” Don’t think yourself as a special chosen-one because you contribute to UnHerd.
Read the Guardian or The New Statesman or The Economist. OK, two million downticks for even daring to mention these things. Watch BBC News, the most popular source of news in the UK. Look around you, a bit further than this site.
Sadly, you are correct. I was chatting to someone yesterday who gets his news from the BBC and he told me, perfectly seriously, that the cause of the Southport massacre was Amazon.
You can’t fix “stupid”, I’m afraid. Only the person himself can fix it.
There’s no benefit in having a government that “governs well” if all that results in is the accelerating descent of that country.
I agree. I offered a touch of irony.
Bizarre comment! Compare the state of the UK twenty years ago with the mess we’re in now and think again.
I was responding to KE’s comment, “I’ll bet that there are a few good Germans….”. This is the negative comment. My response with irony was to mock KE’s comment.
Well, Mr. Wiliams, you have certainly brought the Farage-fanciers out in hives! But you are perfectly correct. Reform needs to win somewhere, and then prove how useless it is. If your name has any bearing on your location, then I am sorry to say that Wales looks as though it is well in the frame. Trying to grapple with Welsh potholes ought to knock off a bit of the rather seedy glamour that currently surrounds Reform.
Wales in next year’s election will be a key Reform target. Labour has 50% of the seats at the moment and they are planning to increase the number from 60 to 96, mostly in the Labour areas. Plaid Cymru has only one policy. The Tories are flabby. Surprisingly, Reform has a real chance. But, probably, Labour will win again.
I live in ‘the valleys’ which will always be Labour because the ghost of Margaret Thatcher is hovering above us as I type. A couple of months ago, in a funeral, I mentioned the coming election and I was surrounded, in a weird way, by people who were a little indignant about the suggestion of there being a CHOICE about who should get my vote.
Not at all. Labour in the UK are the most incompetent politicians in Europe by a long way and they’ve been around forever. The blob (snivel serpents) actually runs the country but it can also take out governments so it will have to be dealt with and neutered at some point. The AFD will do great.
Why will parties that have governed for the last 20 years govern well in future, when they haven’t demonstrated that ability previously?
I suspect Katharine may be in Austria? And that “they” refers not to the current crowd in power, but to what she calls the “far right” in Germany?
I belie this is the only reason Starmer and his incompetent crew got nit power. There were too many voters who had not had to endure previous Labour governments as a fully functioning citizen so had no idea how awful they would be. Well, now they know so no excuse for voting for them again next time.
“far-right (yes, that is the correct description for these parties) ”
Relative to the “mainstream “, yes.
But that’s because the mainstream parties – and their largely college educated, largely female core vote based – has gone over so much to loony left policies.
The so called far right policies are stuff that would be considered sensible and normal across the board until 20 years back.
The problem is that when you label everyone far right, and do it for so long, no one takes you seriously because you’ve been crying wolf so long, and people have been calling wolf about everything for far far too long.
At this point a movement could explicitly say “we want a return of National Socialism over the entire world” in their charter and I still wouldn’t believe they are far right simply because I wouldn’t believe that’s in there. Why? Because I’ve been told everyone is a Nazi for so long and that anyone who hasn’t kowtowed to the powers that be was dangerous and far right simply for saying things that could be considered as basic common sense.
So now you have to prove that far right is actually bad, because it turns out when everyone is far right, then no one is. Have fun in your corner though, the paint you’ve put all around it is a lovely shade.
I would like to know, why you call the AfD “far-right”. The party’s manifesto looks like a combination of Libertarian Economics mixed with pride in Germany’s cultural heritage. AfD’s leadership condemns Hitler’s regime/ legacy and anti-Semitism and doesn’t want to expel people with migrant backgrounds, who are truly integrated. In your opinion are Trump, Meloni and even Milei extreme right wing? I am truly curious…
The enthusiasm of many prominent AfD figures for Putin and their opposition to supporting Ukraine is what makes people think of them as far-right.
Many are in line with historian J. Maersheimer’s view of the war in Ukraine. You might disagree, as I actually do, but that doesn’t mean Maersheimer is far right…They also don’t want Germany to spend huge amount of money on foreign wars. A bit like Trump’s view and the MAGA movement.
In your opinion are Trump, Meloni and even Milei extreme right wing? I am truly curious…
If you really have to ask …
Katherine Eyre seems to be slightly air-headed. What is far-right about the AfD manifesto? Has she read it? Is she simply repeating what the mainstream parties and their supporting media keep rabbiting on about? Because they are losing core support to a party that talks common sense, and are terrified of the result.
David Eades
Regimes don’t care about people—only survival. When they fail, they double down. The post-WW2 regime, which has suffocated Europe, is in panic mode. Cracks are showing in the ‘firewall.’ The final phase is wild lashing out—escalating authoritarianism and political persecution
Why are basic border controls not enforced already. Surely ‘entry ban for anyone without the correct documents” is basic
Agreed. Isn’t that what every country in the world does?
The article portrays it as being part of an exotic new five-point proposal for Germany
I guess Germany’s position in the Schengen area has weakened these basic border controls
We know from bitter experience this is not what the US has been doing for the last four years, and it’s not what the UK does at its ‘southern border’, either.
It is heartbreaking to watch this unfold in Germany. I have visited the country many times and friends there. The same scenes are unfolding in the UK and France. Migration is a huge issue here in the USA but many of the migrants come from a Christian style culture so seem to assimilate better. I’m at a loss to see how the merging of very different cultures will work out well. Maybe it will but a huge bet by the EU ruling class…I know they fear the negative demographics but a scary roll of the dice for sure
It’ll work out as well as it has in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq etc
If the CDU think a policy is right it shouldn’t matter who else supports it. Just get on with it and stop playing political games.
Tony Benn and Enoch Powell supported leaving the EC/EEC. It really shouldn’t be an issue.
May you be proved to be right
Angela ‘Frau Frump’ Merkel’s 1 million immigrant legacy to her German people is an utter disaster and an abuse of her power. But it pales into insignificance compared with the 1-million-immigrants-a-year legacy of the Tory Party in the UK.
When all other arguments fail politicians will always revert to
the politics of it being questioned
It really does show the utterly bankrupt ideology of Western European liberalism ( by no means in Germany alone )
> but Merz refuses to bring it to the floor of the Bundestag out of fear that the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) could vote for it along with his own party.
Is this some European thing I’m to freedom to understand? Are they really not willing to carry out the will of the electorate, and not do something good for their country simply because another party they disagree with happens to support it?
Is this how Europeans do politics? Is this some sort of result of a parliamentary system? Can someone explain this to me in a way that makes any rational or moral sense? Why would you refuse to do something that everyone wants you to do, refuse to do something that would be a positive for your country, refuse to do anything that would even hint at anything in the direction of something, simply because someone with whom you disagree has been complaining about it?
Like I don’t understand, what is wrong with Europeans?
This is the default position in the UK: if people you perceive as beneath you make a fuss about something, your superior moral compass must point in the opposite direction (cf. Brexit, death penalty, trans, Southport, cheap diesel etc.). You simply must indicate your virtue by holding the line, a noble amongst savages.
It’s technocratic bastardised paternalism – never have a proper discussion in front of the servants.
Just a minor point: “controls at all borders” and “people apprehended at the border” all assume that illegals are sufficiently dumb to enter Germany through a border crossing and not through any of the 3,767 kilometers of Germany’s international borders away from such crossing points.
Well, in the meantime, it seems that “the fire wall” has crumbled, and there will be an open vote in the Bundestag (parliament) in the next few days to vote for Merz’s 5 point plan to control Germany’s border. It seems the “poisonous” offer by the AfD was accepted. Germany’s politics are heating up…
The German globalist Deep State is probably worse than the British one.
If the AFD remotely look like they will gain power they will be proscribed in the name of democracy. Then the fun will really begin.
MENAP and Sub Saharan migration must stop immediately and remigration must begin. Only the AFD will do this.
Dear Stephanie, the AfD combines different strands: neoliberalism, conservatism and the völkische Element. The last part is the utterly unacceptable one. For example: Björn Höcke the strongman behind Alice Weidel says: the Holocoust memorial in Berlin is a memorial of shame, or Germany needs a 180 degree turn when looking back at Hitler Germany…
Please elaborate on the Volkische element
I was under the impression that they are being purged, in the same manner Meloni got rid of her brand of crazies.
Honest question btw. As much most here distrust media and establishment narratives for very good reason, as much this issue deserves serious attention.
Stakes are pretty high
Völkische Element is at its core a radical response to migration. Höcke and some people in the AfD are afraid of “Umvolkung” = the narrative that current elites try to dilute and replace real Germans. German citizens should only be those with German blood from their ancestors. Everybody else has to leave. They want a more authoritarian government model and think that the current democracy is weak and they also want to rewrite the history of the Third Reich. Höcke belonged to “Der Flügel” (The wing) . This was a subgroup of AfD who wanted to move the AfD into that direction. It is now formally dissolved and some of the former members left the party. But others are still there and Alice Weidel who wanted to get rid of Björn Höcke didn’t succeed and was forced to forge some kind of alliance with him.
The AfD as a whole and certainly the vast majority of its voters are not into this. On migration many people welcome those who contribute. They just dont want the criminals, the islamic ideologues and those that are just coming for state benefits and they want the process to be controlled and not illegal.
After the left liberal turn of the CDU under Merkel, AfD has become the only real opposition for many important policy questions: Europe sceptic, Climate sceptic, Migration sceptic, Covid lockdown and vaccine mandate sceptic, Genderism sceptic, Ukraine war sceptics etc. To label all of this “far right” is especially in Germany a very powerful strategy. But it has been overused. In the last European election AfD was especially successful with young voters. Before young voters voted for the Greens or FDP.
Your quote is wrong. He said: “no nation in the world would build such a huge memorial of shame ( the Holocaust memorial) in the middle of its capital”. His words were insensitive as the Holocaust is unique in the civilised world. But does Washington have an enormous memorial of Slavery or Slaughter of Native American Indians in front of the White House, or Moscow a memorial of Stalin’s horrible crimes (killing millions through starvation or expulsions) in front of the Kremlin or Turkey a memorial of the Slaughter of millions of Armenians in the middle of Ankara?
Also look at the many unpleasant things, which were said by Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, before she was elected, and she now seems to be one of Europe’s most feted leaders. I honestly think, that the current AfD leadership wants to move away from these past insensitive utterances…
Merz’s attitude towards the AfD parallels Sadiq Khan’s attitude towards Reform. Khan, too, also ‘comes across as a politician who would rather risk … lives than vote for a single bill alongside a particular rival party’.
Merz’s behaviour is undemocratic. The AfD have been voted in by the electorate and it is his duty to work with them. If he won’t he should go.
Got to love “defending democracy” by refusing to deal with the second most popular political party.