Following the high election results for the AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance in Saxony and Thuringia, CDU leader Friedrich Merz is calling for the political center to be strengthened ahead of the state elections in Brandenburg. “We will now say to voters in Brandenburg: take a close look at what has happened in Thuringia and Saxony. Make sure that there are clear political majorities in the middle of the political spectrum,” Merz told the German Press Agency in Berlin.
The SPD still has the Prime Minister in Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, and is evidently not threatened by the five percent hurdle. “The SPD also has a responsibility to ensure that there will continue to be stable political majorities in the political center in the future,” said Merz. In surveys, the SPD in Brandenburg is at 20 percent, the CDU at 19 percent. The AfD is at around 24 percent, the BSW at 17 percent.
Merz does not see CDU facing a major test
When asked whether he saw the CDU facing a major test despite the upcoming talks in Saxony and Thuringia with the BSW and, to some extent, the Left Party, Merz said: “No. The media is partly making it up to us.” We are “very clear on these issues and, moreover, we are in absolute agreement. There was great agreement in the presidium and the federal executive board with the Thuringians, the Saxons and all of us.”
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt have made it clear what they are willing to do and what is not, said Merz. “I have absolute confidence in both of them that they will handle the task that they have now been given by the voters very responsibly.” When asked whether he would personally intervene if there were turbulence in the state associations or calls for talks with the AfD, the federal party leader said: “I do not see that this requires intervention on my part.”
“No unsolicited advice from the West German comfort zone”
There is of course “considerable unease in many parts of the CDU in West Germany with regard to what is now being discussed in Thuringia and Saxony,” Merz admitted. “But we as the CDU have to put up with that. And we should not give unsolicited public advice from our West German comfort zone.”
Regarding Kretschmer’s recommendation to distance himself from the term “firewall” against the AfD, Merz said: “The word firewall has never been part of our vocabulary. It has always been imposed on us from outside.” He added: “I do not need to distance myself from a term that I did not introduce myself.” Kretschmer had argued that the AfD was exploiting the term firewall for its own benefit, that it was “a master at portraying itself as a martyr.” This appealed to some voters.
Merz said his party achieved results on Sunday that were twice as good as those of the entire traffic light coalition combined. That is why the CDU now has the responsibility to ensure stable governments that can deal with state political issues appropriately. There is a clear agreement: “There will be no coalition with the AfD, no cooperation with the AfD and the same applies to the Left Party.”
CDU leader: BSW largely unknown quantity
The BSW is “a largely unknown quantity” for the CDU, said the CDU leader. The question now is “whether the MPs who were elected there are possibly prepared to participate in forming a sensible government,” explained Merz, adding: “But that is a question that must now be decided in Dresden and Erfurt and not in Berlin.” The talks could take several more weeks, and they are a long way from forming coalitions.
Wagenknecht will not be a member of either government, Merz said. His firm belief is that the BSW founder “will not descend into the depths of state politics. Ms. Wagenknecht has never done that in federal politics either.” She has “always flown at a high altitude. She has never really done any work in a government or in a parliament.”
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