On a foggy, frigid morning in Saxony, far-right MP René Boffmann couldn’t believe in his party’s luck on the last day of the German election campaign.
Conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz has shown taboo-destructive openness to AFD support for his hardline course on border policy, and voters visiting Boffman’s information stands in small towns such as Schkeditz have said they I have one problem in front of my mind: immigration.
In the epic gambit, Meltz tried to take back control of the highly charged immigrant debate by passing a non-binding resolution on Congressional border security by votes from the far right. The far right supported the new acceptance of the mainstream lawmakers while the fuss continued. 48 hours later, Mertz did not pass another immigration bill in Bandetag after a rebellion from within his own ranks.
“There’s a dilemma with Herr Merz,” Bochmann told the observer. “He sees the AFD polls and knows he has to do something to keep us at bay, but voters can do what he says (about immigration). I doubt that, so the only way to really show that they want change is to vote for us.”
Merz’s core right CDU/CSU alliance is hot to rank first in the February 23 election with around 30% support, but anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic AFD has surpassed 20% in vote He came in second place for several months.
Mertz’s dramatic ploy to appeal to courts for far-right support in Congress for his “uncompromising” immigration policy failed to seduce AFD voters, opinion surveys say the disregard for support It suggests that there are only movements that can be done.
Meanwhile, his characteristically impulsive stunt shifted the argument from what he says is Mertz’s strongest selling point: the massive state of the German economy. At the same time, his mercury tactics seem to question how he governs.
German voters on the spectrum said last week that the turbulent campaign has made them deeply skeptical about whether the political centre could form an alliance to address concerns.
The weekly news magazine Der Spiegel found the latest cover story: “After the taboo violation: Does Germany still rule?” YouGov polls found that four of the five Germans had It showed that Merz’s Muddier’s attitude towards the AFD would be concerned about what it would mean for future coalition consultations between mainstream parties.
For lunch, we approached in Schkediz, the town of Leipzig Airport. There, many people work in the huge DHL air cargo hub. Locals who picked up a Bratourst in a grill van in a neat market square stopped to chat with Boffman and his campaign volunteers. It was the only party.
Bernd Ullrich, 72, said that he had long voted for the CDU (Christian Democrats), the Berlin wall fell, after turning his eyes to the AFD with an anti-immigrant stance.
“After the reunification, we were proud of what we achieved, but now things are heading south, and that’s all the result of (Angela) Merkel’s migration,” he said. Over a million people have escaped war and poverty. Mertz also denounced the policy to promote the rise in AFD.
Assuming he won, Ulrich noted that Merz almost inevitably demands the party to the left of the CDU – the Social Democrats or the Greens, forming a viable majority. Because Meltz ruled out the formal coalition with the AFD, a compromise on his pledge is necessary to curb migration, for example by returning “irregular immigrants” at the border.
“Meltz talks about a good game (with immigration), but when the election is over, he has to rule and backtrack in red or green,” Ulrich said. “It’s election fraud.”
Grit E, a 50-year-old green voter, said he was shocked to hear many longtime friends and neighbors have given up on the Democrats in recent years, and the candid opposition from her teenage daughter is on the far right. I’m worried about getting into trouble in town. She fears that Meltz will not follow his words to ban AFD from the government.
“It’s all very confusing and confused,” she said of Meltz’s AFD overture. “He’s hitting the gas on his foot, but he’s racing the wrong way. It’s scary that things are going.”
German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s unpopular coalition of “traffic lights” collapsed in November, causing early elections seven months earlier than planned. Merz and one of the 16 regional states of Germany, who have never run a ministry, seemed well placed to realize their decades-old dream of becoming prime minister for a long time.
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Mertz’s CDU/CSU gathered behind him, and he gave a standing ovation in the party assembly on Monday, with voters immigrants following the recent deadly attack on young children in Asshafinberg and Magdeburg’s Christmas market. He gave him a standing ovation because he insisted he wanted a more robust attitude towards. About asylum seekers.
New official statistics show that even if asylum requests fell 34% last year, Meltz saw his personal approval rate rise four points in a week. But Mertz’s decision to carve a “firewall” between the centist and the far right has become angry, confused and frightening as many Germans prepare to vote within two weeks.
Religious leaders, human rights group Merkel himself has accused Merkel of “wrong” his strategy, and tens of thousands of people have joined in protests against the conservative candidate’s infidelity with the AFD.
Around 200 protesters gathered outside the AFD in Teltow, a small town in Brandenburg. After hanging a one-night “refugee welcome” banner last week over the main square.
Several voters recalled that the turbulent political conditions of the Weimar era a century ago allowed the Nazis to distill moderate forces. Elementary school teacher Casandra Hölscher, 32, was called “emotional” by many Germans last week, and Merz was playing with fire and had no clear plans on how to protect democracy. He said he was worried that he might not be able to do so.
“He made it very difficult for the SPD (Social Democrats) or Green to say they work with him, and that’s what scares me,” she said. “Meltz piloted his CDU into difficult situations, and that allows us as a society.”
Compared to many of its neighbors, the German right edge took much longer to reach critical mass. Many analysts have placed it partially in the country’s culture of Holocaust memory.
Kerstin, 50, refused to give her a last name because she was undergoing medical surgery in town, saw asylum seekers being used as political scapegoats and she was about the limitations of political discourse. He said he was worried that it was widely shared. “Refugees aren’t the problem, they’re our approach to them. Many of them have been experiencing war and are not receiving the care they need in Germany. They are not medically, and more than anything, psychologically , I’ve seen it in these attacks,” she said.
“After World War II, you saw the same thing. There, the soldiers returned had similar troubles. I spent a lot of time studying the Nazi era and things. I’ve reached the point that it won’t come back. I’m worried that things could become very radical.”
Religious Studies teacher Christophe Noak (58) brings Meltz to his words when he officially cooperates with the AFD to exclude him, and draws lessons from the “retreated mistakes” for the candidate. He said he encouraged it.
“Now I hope that established parties can unite and form a front against racism and instigation,” he said.
