"Merz said the AfD would be the "main opponent" of his conservative CDU/CSU alliance at state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Berlin in 2026. "We will now also be very clear and very explicit about where the AfD stands in terms of content, and we will distance ourselves from them very clearly and explicitly," he said after a party conference in Berlin."
""This party has declared its intention to destroy the CDU. It wants a different country," Merz said. "It is not just details that separate us. We are separated from the AfD by fundamental issues and fundamental political convictions.""
Friedrich Merz vowed to take on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of five state elections in 2026. The AfD has surged in the polls, recording 20.8 percent in February and rising in subsequent surveys, with some polls now placing it as the largest party. The CDU/CSU declared the AfD its main opponent in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Berlin and pledged to distance itself explicitly and refuse collaboration. Some AfD branches have been declared right-wing extremist by German intelligence, while some regional CDU officials have called for pragmatic alliances.
Read at The Local Germany
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