Front-runner in German election says his party will ‘never’ work with the far right

BERLIN (AP) — The front-runner in Germany’s upcoming election said Monday that the far-right Alternative for Germany is his “most important opponent” and his party will “never” work with it, following a week in which he was accused of breaking a taboo on dealing with the far right.

Center-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s Union bloc has been leading polls ahead of the Feb. 23 election. But he drew protests after he put a motion to parliament last week calling for Germany to turn back many more migrants at its borders. It passed narrowly thanks to support from the far-right party.

That was a first that prompted strong criticism from his opponents and a public rebuke from ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, who once led his own party. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets over the weekend.

Merz, determined to prove his party’s commitment to a tougher approach to migration, rejects the criticism. He says his position is unchanged and that he didn’t and won’t work with Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is in second place in recent polls. He points the finger at the center-left governing parties for being unwilling to approve changes to migration rules.

“I can assure voters in Germany very clearly of one thing: We will not work with the party that calls itself Alternative for Germany — not before (the election), not after, never,” he told a convention of his Christian Democratic Union on Monday, to applause. “This party stands against everything our party and our country built up in Germany over the past years and decades. It stands against our Western orientation, it stands against the euro, it stands against NATO.”

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“It is the most important opponent for us in this election campaign — we want to make it small again,” Merz said to applause, adding that there won’t be a minority government with its support or any other variation on cooperation. “There are no ifs, there are no buts.”

The governing parties say Merz broke his word not to allow any measures to pass thanks to AfD’s votes in an outgoing parliament in which there are no clear majorities. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has suggested Merz can no longer be trusted not to form a government with AfD, which Merz angrily denies.

“We are being attacked, and there are protests against our policy,” he said Monday, but “it’s important to hold our course” on migration.