""In public perception, this false narrative is taking hold: 'They could push everything through with the AfD if only they would tear down this firewall,'", Merz said in the interview. Referring to remarks by AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, who has emphasized her readiness to cooperate with the CDU, Merz said: "The 'outstretched hand' repeatedly invoked by the AfD actually aims to destroy us, as they themselves say.""
"Merz also said that the decision by former CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015 to allow almost 1 million Syrians to enter Germany to escape the civil war in their country had contributed to the AfD's rise. This was compounded by decisions taken after 2021 by the center-left coaltion of his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, he said, which led to a doubling of the AfD's popularity ratings."
Friedrich Merz rejects calls to remove the CDU's firewall with the far-right AfD and commits to highlighting policy differences more clearly. He warns that public perception is forming that removing the firewall would allow the AfD to push through policies. He frames the AfD's outreach, including Alice Weidel's expressed readiness to cooperate, as a tactic aimed at destroying the CDU and identifies the AfD as the main opponent in upcoming electoral battles. He attributes the AfD's rise partly to Angela Merkel's 2015 decision to admit nearly one million Syrians and to post-2021 coalition decisions that doubled AfD popularity.
Read at www.dw.com
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