Firewall: CDU votes for AfD's cost card utility in Dresden | EUROtoday

There are clear cracks within the firewall conjured up by the CDU: with votes from the factions of CDU, FDP and Free Voters, the Dresden metropolis council accepted an AfD utility to introduce a cost card for asylum seekers. This emerges from a recording of town council assembly on Thursday night.

The resolution was slender with 33 votes to 32. Before the vote, Thomas Lehmann from the CDU parliamentary group mentioned that his group supported the movement as a result of he feared that the introduction of a deliberate nationwide cost card may take a very long time.

According to parliamentary group chief Heike Ahnert, there was no majority for the CDU parliamentary group's personal proposal. That's simply the request AfD remained, she instructed the dpa information company. “It would have been better if we could have discussed our application in the city council instead of agreeing to the AfD application.” A separate proposal for this have to be the frequent objective of the centrist factions sooner or later.

Merz promised: No cooperation with the AfD

Last 12 months, CDU chief Friedrich Merz made it clear after a debate concerning the AfD's “firewall” in native politics: “There might be no cooperation between the CDU and the AfD on the native stage both.

The conduct of the CDU in Dresden he criticized. “The decision is correct in substance, unacceptable in procedure,” mentioned Merz in Berlin. “That was a mistake. And we will talk to those affected about everything else.” The CDU has at all times mentioned that it’ll not conform to AfD proposals, no matter which parliament. Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) had additionally repeatedly taken a transparent stance in opposition to the AfD and strictly refused to work with it.

The AfD parliamentary group's proposal stipulates that, in a mannequin experiment, a cost card will substitute the present money funds for asylum seekers. The card ought to solely be used to make funds inside Germany, and there also needs to be additional restrictions on use.

Left: CDU drops all inhibitions

Ahnert recalled that there have been unanimous choices by the Prime Minister's Conference with the Federal Government on the introduction of the cost card. What was written down and determined was nothing aside from this cross-party settlement. “Cities and districts are directly responsible for the implementation of this project. That's why it is right that a city council discusses this important issue,” she mentioned.

The federal authorities has a cupboard resolution on a cost card for refugees, however it’s unclear when the nationwide regulation might be determined within the Bundestag. In some federal states, particular person municipalities have already launched their very own cost playing cards.

Criticism got here from the left-wing faction. Party chief André Schollbach accused the CDU of now “dropping all inhibitions.” This makes it clear that “the previous assurances that they would clearly differentiate themselves from the right-wing extremist AfD were nothing more than lip service.” Anyone who votes for the CDU in Saxony should assume that their vote will in the end serve to realize a majority for AfD politics, mentioned Schollbach. The Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the state affiliation of the AfD as “certainly right-wing extremist”.