Over the weekend, many people took to the streets to protest in Aachen, Augsburg, Braunschweig, Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Würzburg and many other smaller cities, to protest the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) seeking support from the far-right AfD party.
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| Protesters take part in a march in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. (Source: Getty Images) |
According to German news agency DW , Berlin police said that at least 160,000 people participated in the demonstration, with the main reason being to protest the CDU/CSU relying on the support of the far-right AfD party to pass a bill on immigration restrictions in the Parliament earlier last week.
The reason for the wave of outrage
As soon as the protest began outside the federal parliament building, some people chanted: “CDU, shame on you!”.
Many others accused the CDU and chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz of “making a deal with the devil” by seeking AfD support to pass the bill.
With just three weeks to go before Germany's general election, opinion polls show the CDU/CSU in the lead, with the AfD in second place.
“I have repeatedly stated clearly and unequivocally: We will not cooperate with the AfD,” Friedrich Merz declared on February 2.
He stressed that the CDU is “fighting for a political majority in democracy”, while inspecting the hall for the party congress taking place on February 3 in Berlin.
Asked whether he would accept votes from the AfD to secure a majority in the event that no party wins an outright victory, he replied simply: “No.”
The CDU's push for AfD support in the Bundestag last week sparked outrage across Germany. Pushing through the resolution with AfD support is a move that breaks a taboo in modern German politics.
With this move, Mr. Friedrich Merz - the leading candidate before the general election - broke the "firewall", which was established after the horrific destruction of Nazi Germany.
Since World War II and the Holocaust, Germany’s traditional political parties have reached a consensus that the far right should never be allowed to return to power. This “firewall” means no open cooperation with far-right parties of any kind.
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| Michel Friedman says he no longer belongs to the CDU. (Source: DPA) |
"Disastrous turning point"?
Although the immigration bill with stricter provisions was narrowly rejected over the weekend, the aftershocks have not stopped.
Former politician Michel Friedman, who is also deputy chairman of the Central Council of German Jews, announced his departure from the CDU in protest at the party’s cooperation with the AfD on immigration policy, calling it a “catastrophic turn for democracy”.
Mr. Friedman participated in a protest in Berlin on February 2, emphasizing that Germany needs to focus on preventing the rise of the far-right.
Referring to the AfD, he declared: "This is the party of hatred." He also affirmed that the CDU's mistake in seeking support from the AfD cannot be overlooked, even though the final bill did not pass.
However, he warned against criticising the CDU too easily, especially in an election context, and instead focused on preventing one in five voters from voting for the AfD.
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| Protesters in kayaks in Cologne, western Germany. (Source: DW) |
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