"This party is xenophobic. This party is anti-Semitic. We have nothing to do with these people."

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Friedrich Merz (on 1 June)

Photo: Michael Matthey / dpa

CDU leader Friedrich Merz has once again clearly rejected cooperation with the AfD. "As long as I am party chairman of the CDU, there will be no cooperation with this party," Merz said on Sunday evening in the ZDF "heute journal" in view of the recent relatively high poll values for the AfD.

Merz said of the AfD: "This party is xenophobic. This party is anti-Semitic. We have nothing to do with these people, and there will be no cooperation here – under the hand, over the hand, on the table, under the table with me and not us."

In the ARD "Germany trend", the AfD had recently drawn level with the SPD with 18 percent. The Insa survey for the "Bild am Sonntag" sees the party, which is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist suspected case, at 19 percent, on a par with the SPD. The Union is at 27 percent in the Insa survey.

Merz reiterated that the cause of the AfD's strength was mainly the weakness of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's traffic light government. "If we had a government that worked well in terms of craftsmanship and politics, then the AfD would not be at 18 percent." Merz mentioned in particular the Greens in the government. "People in Germany are simply tired of this kind of paternalism. And they're venting about that now."

Merz rejected the accusation that the Union used the AfD's choice of words when criticizing the government. "We don't use AfD-speak." He said he was not prepared to accept that the Union would immediately be brought close to the AfD with any criticism of the government. Sometimes, even in the ranks of the Union, exaggerations are made. However, the Union is clear on the matter, remains capable of talking the next day and is ready to make compromises with the government.

Astonishing statements about genders on TV

In the migration debate, Merz backed a proposal by Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) to establish a commission of federal, state and local governments for a new asylum policy.

He is happy to make this suggestion his own, Merz said. "But if, for example, the Greens permanently and insistently claim that we have no problem at all, that we are not even prepared to talk about reducing immigration at the federal level, let alone make decisions, then the problem becomes bigger and with the growing problem, the AfD gets bigger."

Merz had just commented on the AfD's increased poll ratings – with an astonishing statement. In his newsletter on Saturday, he blamed gendering in news broadcasts. "With every gendered news broadcast, a few hundred more votes go to the AfD. Conflicted language and identitarian ideology are no longer quietly rejected by a large majority of the population. They are perceived as encroaching.«

Other CDU/CSU politicians had also worked on gendering on television.

jok/dpa