Firewall: “Red and Green will not stop the AfD. Then the Union will no longer exist in ten years” | EUROtoday

The debate concerning the AfD firewall continues to achieve momentum. In the ZDF program “Markus Lanz”, the previous CDU normal secretary Peter Tauber as soon as once more referred to as for his occasion to deal in another way with the AfD and its voters.

“If this firewall only leads to the AfD rushing from poll victory to poll victory, then I have to ask myself: What will happen if it doesn’t lead to election victories,” Tauber stated on the present. “If we don’t want the AfD to gain political power, then we have to change something in how we deal with it.”

“You also have to ask critically: Is the firewall part of radicalization?” stated Tauber, referring to the AfD’s ever-increasing rightward shift for the reason that occasion was based. “Then it would have a devastating effect. Then it is an accelerant,” stated the CDU politician. “I would say that’s not unreasonable.”

Tauber had already made an analogous assertion in “Stern” in mid-October. One ought to “not debate every topic depending on the AfD,” stated the 51-year-old. Tauber and the historian Andreas Rödder, former chairman of the CDU Basic Values ​​Commission, suggest that the Union probably method the AfD with a “policy of red lines”.

When requested concerning the reactions, Tauber stated on “Markus Lanz”: Lots of people say you talked about one thing apparent. Thanks.” He also received this feedback within the Union, for example from entrepreneurs, even though Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn (CDU) publicly dismissed Tauber’s expression of opinion as “completely irrelevant”.

Tauber fears that the Union will be crushed between the AfD and the left-green camp

“The AfD has long had political power,” said Tauber on “Markus Lanz”. “We have two discourses in our nation. We have a concern discourse from the AfD that Germany goes down the drain. And we now have a second concern discourse – the concern of the AfD.” The firewall means that there is no substantive debate with the AfD.

Tauber observes that the party spectrum is becoming increasingly narrow for the Union. The AfD is pushing from the right and targeting voters in the center. They do not have a closed right-wing extremist worldview, but do not feel supported in the discourse, said Tauber. “On the other hand, the Union is also being crushed because red and green immediately stop any other form of discourse.”

He urged debates to be conducted in such a way that positions are not immediately excluded, but rather tolerated. “We should method the dispute in another way, into the discourse. We additionally should endure a special number of positions within the democratic dispute,” said Tauber. “If we do not do this, then the Union shall be crushed. Then in ten years it’ll not exist. Red and Green is not going to cease the AfD. That will solely be potential with a powerful CDU.”

The CDU discussed how to deal with the AfD at a two-day executive committee meeting on Sunday a week ago. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) confirmed that his party would not work with the AfD. The AfD wants to destroy the CDU and fundamentally “another country,” said Merz. “We will differentiate ourselves very clearly here.”

New CDU group “Compass Mitte” calls for AfD ban proceedings

Meanwhile, a new group within the party that calls itself “Compass Mitte” is promoting the anti-AfD course. In the founding declaration, which “Zeit” reports on, the signatories advocate a clearer demarcation from the AfD. “The CDU was founded in the knowledge that fascism only ever came to power with the help of conservatives,” it says. “There must therefore be no political cooperation between the CDU and the right-wing extremist AfD.”

The signatories go further in their demands than the party leadership. The Union’s incompatibility decision on the AfD must apply “to all political levels”. In 2023, Merz, like the then Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), declared that decisions at the local level could also be made with votes from the AfD.

The initiators are also in favor of an AfD ban procedure: “We are committed to ensuring that the Federal Government, Bundestag or Bundesrat submit an application for the Federal Constitutional Court to examine whether the AfD is unconstitutional and, if necessary, ban it.”

Representatives of liberal and social party trends are behind the “Compass Mitte” initiative. The list of around 30 initial signatories, which is available to “Zeit”, mainly includes local politicians and representatives of the CDU’s employee wing, such as its deputy leader Monica Wüllner, but also Bundestag member Roderich Kiesewetter and the former CDU general secretary Ruprecht Polenz.

The signatories complain that the spectrum of the party has narrowed under Merz’s chairmanship – and that the Union is therefore losing support. “We can’t be glad with the 28.6 p.c within the final federal election. A course correction is required in order that the CDU can as soon as once more obtain the outcomes of a folks’s occasion with 40 p.c. That is why the social and liberal a part of the Union should turn out to be extra seen with a view to attraction to extra folks.”