Kramp-Karrenbauer warns CDU against minority government with AfD tolerance

Former CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer warns that her party will find itself “held hostage by the AfD” with a minority government. Given the majority situation after the election in Saxony-Anhalt, she told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “That would de facto be a coalition with the AfD, because neither the SPD, the Greens nor the Left would then continue to work with the CDU.”

The chairwoman of the party-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation argued: "There are many who say the firewall must come down. But anyone who puts it like that must say what it means." Of course, in its conditions for tolerating a minority government, the AfD named issues that play a role in the CDU. This includes an accelerated naturalization process.

When it comes to Ukraine, the AfD will say: “Without us”

“From my point of view, the AfD is laying a trail of glue,” warned Kramp-Karrenbauer and added: “If the CDU is on it at one point and the other parties turn away from it, the next time the AfD supports Ukraine, it will say: without us.”

If it came to that, Kramp-Karrenbauer does not rule out personal consequences: “Then I would seriously ask myself whether I would still be at home in such a CDU.” It must be made clear that the AfD does not want to help the CDU, but rather destroy it and alone determine the center-right field.

Kramp-Karrenbauer describes the fact that the CDU is no longer represented in a state parliament after the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic as a “real turning point”. However, it does not base its claim to be a people's party solely on election results. The CDU wants to continue to resonate with as many voter groups as possible and shape political debates.

At the same time, the former Prime Minister of Saarland and Defense Minister admitted that many people now perceive Christian Democracy as “out of date”. Kramp-Karrenbauer drew a comparison to the period after 1969, when the CDU no longer had the chancellor for the first time in 20 years. The party is now in an even more difficult and existential situation.