Thousands of Germans protest CDU/CSU for voting with the ultra-right AfD
Thousands of people in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich took to the streets to protest Wednesday's vote in the German Bundestag, where with the aid of Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmakers, conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) lawmakers pushed through a non-binding resolution requiring the tightening of migration policy. The CDU preventively called on the staffers in its Berlin headquarters to go home early because of the demonstrations, as it could not guarantee their safe departure after the protests started.
The secret services have been investigating the AfD for its ultra-right activities. The CDU/CSU is now facing criticism from many Holocaust survivors, media outlets, politicians and the public for the vote.
On Friday, 31 January, another vote awaited the Bundestag, submitted by the CDU/CSU, on a bill to limit family reunifications for refugees. That bill could also have passed thanks to AfD support, but did not.
On Thursday evening, police reported that about 6,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the Berlin headquarters of the CDU, while organizers claimed there were 13,000 participants. They called on the party and its leader, Friedrich Merz, not to collaborate with the far right.
The CDU had feared the protest, which was ultimately peaceful. Security officials warned the party that it would not be able to guarantee a safe departure from the building for its staff.
In Munich, where the Bavarian sister party to the national CDU, the CSU, has its headquarters, police reported that at least 7,000 people assembled who are dissatisfied with the CDU/CSU’s willingness to exploit AfD support in the legislature. “We are the firewall,” the crowd shouted.
German political parties call the principle of not collaborating with right-wing radicals and blocking them in the legislature the “firewall”. “Shame on you, shame on you!” people chanted in front of the office of CSU head Markus Söder, who is also Bavarian Prime Minister.
More protests with several thousand participants each took place in Dresden, Freiburg, Hannover and Leipzig. In Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg, police estimated the number of demonstrators at 15,000.
Criticism from Holocaust survivors
The leader of the German opposition who may become the next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is facing criticism not just from many politicians, but also from Holocaust survivors. The survivors of Nazi atrocities said they feared Friday’s vote in the Bundestag on another bill from the CDU/CSU that would restrict family reunification for refugees, among other things.
While the resolution adopted on Wednesday is legally non-binding, on Friday lawmakers were to assess a bill, i.e., a legally binding regulation. AfD support could have made the difference to the bill passing, but ultimately did not.
“On Friday, for the first time in our postwar history, a law could be adopted in the Bundestag together with right-wing extremists,” 82-year-old Eva Umlauf, who survived the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, wrote in an open letter. She noted that such a move could destroy the firewall, as German parties call the principle of not collaborating with right-wing radicals and blocking them.
“Don’t do it Mr. Merz,” Umlauf called on the opposition leader. Commentators warned that pushing through a bill solely with AfD support would be a watershed moment in the approach to politics.
Early parliamentary elections will be held in Germany on 23 February which polls predict will be won by the CDU/CSU, with the AfD coming in second. Although Merz has a priori ruled out a governing coalition with the AfD, the rise of that party is sparking concerns.
Wednesday’s vote increased that fear even more. Umlauf warned that what happens in the Bundestag this week will be historic.
“After all, this is exactly how it starts, this is how we normalize the enemies of democracy,” Umlauf wrote. Another Holocaust survivor, Albrecht Weinberg, said he planned to return the Medal of Merit that he had been awarded in 2017 during the protest against Wednesday’s vote.
The Mannheim-based photographer Luigi Toscano said he had agreed to return his own Medal of Merit together with Weinberg. Toscano, who was given the award in 2021, is behind a project called “Lest We Forget“, for which he photographed more than 400 Holocaust survivors and exhibited their portraits in public places.
After Wednesday’s vote, the photographer said he feels betrayed, outraged and shocked. “Either the Federal President will receive us or we’ll send it to him by post,” Toscano said when asked how he and Weinberg plan to return their honors to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The German President is the official who bestows such honors. German media outlets are also publishing commentaries critical of the CDU/CSU and Merz.
The commentaries speak of the breaking of a taboo. Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also facing reproaches, though, for not trying to negotiate a compromise with the CDU/CSU.
The CDU/CSU, which has moved away from centrist positions after the retirement of Angela Merkel and under the leadership of Merz, is demanding the tightening of migration policy after a series of attacks have been perpetrated in Germany by asylum-seekers.
German lawmakers found no consensus in debate on whether to request that the AfD be banned
Bundestag lawmakers held an acrimonious debate on Thursday over whether to seek to ban the AfD. The Constitutional Court decides whether to ban political parties and has made such a decision twice before.
One supporter of a ban on the AfD is, paradoxically, an MP with the CDU, Marco Wanderwitz. During the debate he said the AfD can no longer be tolerated by the German state.
Wanderwitz said allowing the party to continue would lead to irreparable harm. His party colleague Philipp Amthor, on the other hand, warned that if the process of banning the AfD were to fail, the party would score an undeserved point for being “democratic”.
The Green Party, fearing that the process of banning the AfD could fail, is proposing the production of an assessment as to whether the party is unconstitutional. The environmental party justified that approach by saying the assessment of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the BfV), which fulfills the role of a civilian counter-intelligence service, is not enough.
The BfV suspects the AfD of ultra-right activity, and counter-intelligence services in three different states – Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia – list the party as engaged in provably extremist endeavors. The party itself is criticizing the efforts of other lawmakers to ban it.
AfD MP Peter Boehringer said Friday that what they are doing is “absurd” and that claims the party violates democratic principles “could not be further from the truth”. Just two parties have been banned during Germany’s postwar history.
In 1952, the West German Government asked the Constitutional Court to ban the Socialist Reich Party (SRP), the self-proclaimed successor to the Nazi party (the NSDAP), which it then did. In 1956, the West German Government followed the same procedure for the Communist Party of Germany (KDP).
In 2003 and 2017, attempts to ban the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) failed in a reunified Germany. The NPD was elected to the Saxon State Parliament, among other places, in the past, but currently is just a fringe party and has changed its name to Die Heimat (The Homeland).
