“The opposition cannot halve the AfD if government policy doubles the AfD”

The politicians are going on their summer break in two weeks, but the problems remain. For more than 36 years, the leaders of the major parties have been answering questions on current political issues in the summer interviews broadcast by public broadcasters. This summer, CDU leader Friedrich Merz kicked things off.

Merz spoke with Diana Zimmermann, head of the ZDF capital studio, about, among other things, the CDU’s handling of the AfD and BSW in the upcoming state elections in the east. Merz appealed to voters of the SPD, FDP and Greens to vote for the Christian Democrats.

Dressed in a beige jacket and light blue shirt, Merz sat opposite the journalist in Meschede in the Sauerland, with a lake and birdsong in the background. The 68-year-old was born in the Sauerland and still lives there today. But he also knows the east of the country well, said Merz. He travels there a lot and tries to understand the people. The party leader attributed the fact that the AfD is likely to receive the most votes in the upcoming state elections in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony to the federal government’s policies. Unresolved questions, such as those on education, the economy and refugee policy, “lead to this voting behavior,” he said.

“The opposition cannot halve the AfD if the government policy doubles the AfD,” said Merz. While the traffic light coalition is in power at the federal level, the CDU is part of the government in Brandenburg with the SPD and the Greens and even has the Prime Minister in Saxony, Michael Kretschmer. The CDU is not doing badly in the East, said Merz. It is “after all the second strongest party in the East.” The SPD, Greens and FDP no longer play a role in East Germany.

However, the problems in the East are not just a party-political problem. “It is a question of whether we have managed to integrate the East well enough after 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And conversely, whether we from the West have understood the East well enough. And that is what we are trying to do,” said Merz.

The CDU leader then made an urgent appeal to those eligible to vote in the two federal states where, according to polls, the CDU will be just behind the AfD: “I can only ask the voters in Saxony and Thuringia who are faced with the decision on September 1st as to who to vote for, but are considering voting for the SPD, the FDP or the Greens – all of which are under five percent – to vote for the CDU now in this situation.”

For Merz, the firewall to the AfD is a must, and a coalition with the right-wing populist party is out of the question. “I say to the voters: If you want to have clear conditions and ensure that there is a stable government, then in Thuringia and Saxony in this state election there will only be the CDU, which will prevent such a difficult situation from arising.”

Merz has already made it clear several times that the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is also not capable of forming a coalition. It is in parts left-wing extremist and right-wing extremist. In the summer interview, the Christian Democrat clarified his comments: The party’s stance is largely unclear, many positions are extremely left-wing, as Sahra Wagenknecht had been when she was still a politician with the Left Party.

“On other issues, she is suddenly using tones that we actually only hear from the AfD, for example when it comes to the topic of immigration and integration,” said Merz. Wagenknecht expressed herself “in a way that makes me say that I rule out any federal political cooperation with her.” But that has nothing to do with the BSW’s orientation on the issues of the market economy, western orientation, NATO or the European Union. “That is not our policy,” said Merz simply.

Merz also spoke about the war in Ukraine. When asked whether he would send the Taurus delivery to Ukraine without hesitation as Chancellor, Merz was diplomatically unclear: “We would have made a different decision in the past. What decision we will make in the future depends on the circumstances that none of us know today.”

The CDU chairman apparently wants more silence about the West’s strategies: “In my opinion, we have been discussing these tactical and strategic, these military questions far too much in public for two and a half years. Putin has an open book in front of him when he looks at the German media and the reporting on what we are discussing politically.” But this is not a criticism of the media, but of the politicians, he said.

At the end of the 20-minute conversation, Zimmermann spoke about the 2025 federal election. The Union is currently at around 30 percent in Sunday polls (Insa). An absolute majority would not be possible with any of the other parties. Merz also did not want to commit to a possible coalition partner when asked if the Union were to win next year.

When it comes to the debt brake, the Social Democrats and the Greens are calling for it to be abolished. But that is not possible with a possible chancellor, Friedrich Merz. “After all, there must be mechanisms to make do with the money that the taxpayers in Germany pay.” That would add up to almost a trillion euros every year. “The state should somehow manage with that,” said Merz. The debt brake was incorporated into the constitution by consensus, “and it should remain a debt brake.”

Regarding a coalition partner, he then simply said that they were closer to each other with the Greens on foreign and security policy than with the Social Democrats. But it is clear that the majority of the population is fed up with the federal government’s “government experience”. And: “We want to govern,” said the CDU party leader.