Conservative Merz stressed that his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian allies the CSU, if they win the election, would not cooperate or rule with the anti-immigration AfD. [Getty]
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his likely successor, Friedrich Merz, promised no collaboration with the extreme right on Tuesday in speeches to parliament before national elections on February 23.
“Never, really never will we make common cause with the extreme right,” Scholz said, accusing Merz of breaking his word on the issue after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) backed his migration and security motion last month, breaking a long-held taboo on cooperation with the far-right.
The AfD is polling in second place, ahead of the SPD, with Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc on track to win the largest vote share.
The CDU/CSU and AfD each gained a point in the latest opinion poll by the INSA institute, landing at 30% and 22%, respectively. The SPD fell by half a percentage point to 15.5%.
All parties have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD, meaning that talks to form a government could drag on after the elections.
“Collaborating with the AfD is out of the question for us,” Merz said in response to Scholz’s comments.
He blamed Scholz’s three-way coalition, which fell apart in November due to a spending row, for fuelling the rise of the AfD by pursuing “left-wing politics against the discernible will of the population”.
Germany ‘deindustrialising’
Merz, whose party is polling at around 30 percent, is banking on going “all in” on immigration to peel away voters tempted by the AfD, which is polling in second place with at least 20 percent of the vote.
The Social Democrats of Scholz and the Greens are both trailing at around 15 percent.
The rivals also clashed on the ailing economy.
While Scholz advocated investment to help struggling businesses and a higher minimum wage Merz blamed his government for Germany now “deindustrialising”.
“We are now in the third year of a recession,” Merz said. “That has never happened in Germany before. We have three million unemployed in Germany and the trend is rising.”
Scholz pointed to high energy costs sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“I did not invade Ukraine,” he said.
The two candidates mostly agreed on major foreign policy goals and the need to raise defence spending, but differed somewhat on how Berlin should deal with US President Donald Trump.
Scholz labelled Trump’s plan to take control of Gaza and empty the war-ravaged Palestinian territory “a scandal”, adding that “the relocation of a population is unacceptable and against international law”.
“I share this assessment,” said Merz, while adding that “we have to wait and see what is really meant seriously and how it will be implemented. There is probably a lot of rhetoric involved.”
Like many other observers, ING bank analyst Carsten Brzeski judged that the relatively “well-behaved” 90-minute debate ended with a draw.
The debate “is unlikely to significantly have moved the needle in the election campaign,” he wrote.
“Tone and content leave the door open for another grand coalition after the elections, even though coalition talks are likely to be complicated.”
