Merz rejects calls to relax refusal to deal with German far-right party

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BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday rejected calls from some in his party to relax its refusal to deal with the far-right Alternative for Germany, declaring that the still-growing party has nothing in common with his conservatives.

The anti-migration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, finished second in Germany's national election in February. Polls since then have shown its support continuing to grow, with some putting it level with or even ahead of Merz's Union bloc. Merz's nearly 6-month-old governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats, meanwhile, has annoyed many voters with public disagreements on a number of issues.

Five of Germany's 16 states hold regional elections next year — including two in the formerly communist east, where AfD is particularly strong and has good chances of finishing first.

A convention of Merz's Christian Democratic Union in 2018 rejected any “coalitions and similar forms of cooperation” with AfD, as well as with the Left Party at the other end of the political spectrum. That limits its room for maneuver in a changing political landscape in which majorities for coalitions of like-minded parties are increasingly rare.

Last week, a few conservatives — including Peter Tauber, a former CDU general secretary, and former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg — argued for a more relaxed approach to AfD. Tauber suggested a “new policy of red lines” that clearly allows the CDU to make decisions that gain the far-right party's support.

Merz said Monday that no one in the party leadership questions the 2018 decision and “we won't change anything,” regardless of calls from what he called “a few marginal figures.”

“There is no common ground between this party and us,” Merz told reporters after a meeting of the CDU's leadership. He rejected suggestions that the CDU could push through its priorities with AfD, declaring that the far-right party opposes not only the policies of the last 10 years, but decades of decisions that made modern Germany successful.

AfD has called repeatedly for the CDU to dismantle what is widely known as the “firewall” against working with the far right. But its “outstretched hand is, in reality, a hand that wants to destroy us,” Merz said.

The chancellor acknowledged that his coalition has engaged in “too many public discussions” since it took office in May, with priorities that included revitalizing Germany's stagnant economy and reducing irregular migration.

“These arguments hide what the government has rightly put on track in recent months,” he added.

AfD’s support has remained high despite Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classifying it as a right-wing extremist organization, a designation that it suspended after AfD launched a legal challenge.