AfD speaker vote tests German mainstream parties’ firewall

Berlin, Germany. Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned this week that extremism was entering Germany’s parliamentary system, as a vote in Saxony-Anhalt raised fresh questions about mainstream parties’ efforts to isolate the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). At least four mainstream lawmakers appear to have defied party instructions to help give the AfD its first regional assembly speaker.

Secret ballot raises questions over CDU votes

The ballot in the eastern state was secret, but suspicion immediately fell on the 15 lawmakers from Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), who had been instructed to abstain.

Karin Prien, deputy chair of the national CDU, said that if CDU lawmakers were responsible, “there must be consequences”.

The vote was the latest sign of strain in the mainstream parties’ “firewall” intended to isolate the AfD, which seeks to restrict immigration and restore energy ties with Russia.

AfD calls vote a turning point

The AfD hailed the result as a “political turning point”. The party has led the CDU in nationwide surveys for more than a year and has declared its aim of winning the national election due in 2029.

“For the first time, it was clear that the so-called ‘firewall’ doesn’t have to be stronger than the freedom of action of members of parliament,” said Martin Reichardt, head of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD’s record election victory last month left it just short of an absolute majority in the state parliament. Across Europe and beyond, the result was viewed as one of the clearest indications yet that the party could win a national election in 2029.

The victory alarmed rivals, who regard the AfD as anti-democratic and opposed to the values that helped Germany rebuild after World War Two and renounce the horrors of Nazism and its nationalist, racist ideology. The AfD rejects the label “extreme right” as a slur.

Coalition faces disagreements and falling support

Merz’s coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats in Berlin has come under increasing strain, with disagreements between the partners and declining support in opinion polls. Voters, as in many countries across Western Europe, blame mainstream parties for falling living standards.

On Wednesday, the coalition parties held talks to resolve differences over issues including pensions and tax. They said they were “determined not to hand our country over to extremists”.