Protesters say CDU head Friedrich Merz broke post-Nazi norm of never passing any rule with the support of far-right parties.Tens of thousands of people came out to protest against a conservative push for tougher migration laws backed by a far-right party in Germany.
Angry protesters came out in droves in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Leipzig on Sunday to oppose Friedrich Merz and the move by his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to pass a resolution in parliament with the support of the far-right nationalist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.
Many critics say that it broke Germany’s anti-far-right ‘firewall’, an unwritten post-Nazi promise by all democratic parties to never pass any rule with the support of far-right parties.
The CDU and the AfD successfully passed a non-binding resolution on Wednesday in an attempt to block undocumented foreigners at the border, including asylum seekers. However, on Friday, they failed to pass a contentious bill to further restrict immigration.
Merz, whose CDU is running ahead of the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the polling for the upcoming February 23 federal election, is facing unwanted attention over his attitude towards the far right and the AfD. Advertisement
The AfD has itself been polling in second place, ahead of the SPD.
People light up their mobile phones during a protest against the migration plans of the CDU party leader and top candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, in Berlin, Germany [Christian Mang/Reuters]
Hundreds of protesters temporarily blocked offices of the CDU in different cities, with some 160,000 people pouring into the streets of central Berlin, a police spokesman told the AFP news agency. Or …
