Top CDU Politicians Issue Urgent Warning Against Cooperation with AfD Ahead of State Elections

Sharp Words from NRW and Hamburg

CDU workers' wing chairman Dennis Radtke also drew a clear line in the F.A.S. "In dem Moment, in dem die CDU der AfD die Hand reicht, ist sie kaputt", he said. In a slightly different formulation, he added to the newspaper: "In dem Moment, in dem Christdemokraten der AfD die Hand reichten, sei die CDU kaputt." Hamburg CDU chief Dennis Thering, who also spoke to the paper, expects massive internal party upheaval in the event of cooperation: "Das wäre der Anfang vom Ende." He warned against cooperating with the AfD "in irgendeiner Form mit der AfD zusammenzuarbeiten".

North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul also sharpened the tone. The AfD and its thinking are "die größte Gefahr für unsere Demokratie". Anyone who softens the line against the AfD can go ahead without him: "Wer das aufweicht, kann ohne mich weitermachen."

Wadephul Warns of Foreign Policy Weakening

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul picked up the topic at an event of the Stresemann Society in Mainz. "Ein Deutschland, in dem die AfD Macht erhält, ist in dieser Welt schwächer", the CDU politician said. He accused the party of cozying up to a Russian dictator and disregarding Germany's interests: "Sie biedert sich einem russischen Diktator an und trampelt so auf den Interessen eines Landes herum, das sie vorgibt, vertreten zu wollen." His conclusion: "Wer für Putin ist, ist nicht für Deutschland."

Starting Position in the Eastern German States

The background to the debate is the AfD's strength in the polls. The party leads in polls in all eastern German states, including Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In Saxony-Anhalt, a coalition of the CDU, SPD and FDP under Minister-President Sven Schulze currently governs in Magdeburg. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Minister-President Manuela Schwesig leads a coalition of the SPD and the Left in Schwerin.

The CDU has decided at party conventions to rule out both coalitions and other forms of cooperation with the AfD and with the Left. However, if the AfD performs so strongly in the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin that arithmetically there is only one way around it, the party could come under pressure to soften or circumvent this decision. The warnings from the CDU leadership are evidently also directed at the party itself, in order to preempt such a development in advance.