CDU leader Friedrich Merz does not rule out coalitions between the CDU and the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance at the state level. Such a demarcation does apply at the federal level, but “different decisions are made in state politics,” Merz said on Friday on MDR. “In the light of the election results, we have to see what constellation emerges, what ability to govern is conceivable and possible there.”
At the beginning of the week, Merz had rejected a coalition with the BSW at the federal level. “I rule out that a Christian-Democratic Union would pursue a federal policy that would include Ms. Wagenknecht,” he now confirmed on MDR. She has “a completely different opinion than us” on both economic policy and on the issues of the Bundeswehr and defense capabilities.
On Monday, Merz said of the BSW that the CDU does not work with “right-wing extremist and left-wing extremist parties.” Both apply to Sahra Wagenknecht: “She is right-wing extremist on some issues, but left-wing extremist on others.”
The MPs from BSW and AfD caused a scandal in the Bundestag on Monday when they almost all stayed away from the speech given by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj in the Bundestag. Only a few AfD MPs attended the meeting, and no one from BSW, which like the AfD is considered to be close to Russia, attended.
According to surveys, after the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony in September, and possibly also in Brandenburg, it could be difficult to form a government without the AfD, BSW and the Left Party. However, the CDU has ruled out cooperation with the AfD and the Left Party. In the case of the AfD, such an exclusion also applies to the SPD, the Greens and the FDP.