“If the Chancellor regularly antagonizes half the country with certain statements, that is counterproductive,” says Dennis Radtke, chairman of the CDU workers’ wing, criticizing the Chancellor.
The AfD parliamentary group accuses Chancellor Friedrich Merz of defamatory insults and has said it has filed a criminal complaint. The group announced this in a press release. The background is statements made by the Chancellor recently in the Bundestag.
After the AfD's electoral success in Saxony-Anhalt, Merz heavily criticized the party's positions. The head of government accused her of plans for “ethnic cleansing”. “The word remigration is nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color,” said Merz in the general debate on the budget in parliament on Wednesday.
The AfD parliamentary group does not see these statements as covered by a special form of freedom of speech in parliament, called indemnity. "Friedrich Merz has once again crossed a line with his speech, but this time it is criminally relevant. His baseless and disgusting statements, with which he wants to drag our parliamentary group and every single member into the mud, are completely unacceptable and also subject to justice," said Stephan Brandner, parliamentary manager and legal advisor of the AfD parliamentary group, according to the statement.
After the AfD's success in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, the chairman of the CDU employee wing CDA, Dennis Radtke, criticized the Chancellor for his choice of topics and course. “If the Chancellor regularly antagonizes half the country with certain statements, that is counterproductive,” Radtke told Focus magazine about controversial statements made by Chancellor Friedrich Merz in recent weeks.
The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate and CDU leader Gordon Schnieder is calling for a close examination of the financial consequences before abolishing the “pension at 63”. "I don't want to question the abolition of early retirement without deductions in general. But we should talk about the details again," he told the editorial network Germany (RND).
The Bundestag has lifted the immunity of AfD MP Stephan Brandner, thereby enabling criminal proceedings against him. The decision was made without discussion. The Union, SPD, Greens and Left voted for the resolution recommendation of the responsible committee, while the AfD voted against it.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) say they want to invest an additional 40 billion euros in Germany. This was announced by Industry Minister Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber on Thursday. “Germany has been an important strategic and economic partner for decades,” he said.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt expects that saboteurs and so-called disposable agents from Russia will try to attack further targets in Germany. “We have to continue to expect an attack scenario in Germany every day,” said Dobrindt after a special meeting of the Interior Committee on the so-called hybrid threat situation.
According to a newspaper report, resistance to the federal government's tax plans is forming in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Around 20 members of the Union did not want to agree to the plans, Bild reported in advance, citing faction circles.
Against the backdrop of continued rising oil prices, Green Party deputy Andreas Audretsch accuses the federal government of inaction. “Oil companies are currently doubling, tripling or quintupling their profits - at the expense of everyone who has to refuel,” said the Green politician to the Germany editorial network.
The head of the State Chancellery in Saxony-Anhalt, Rainer Robra (CDU), rejects considerations of cutting off the state from security-relevant information in the event of the AfD taking over government. “I cannot imagine how the cooperation between the states required by constitutional law is supposed to work if the state of Saxony-Anhalt is excluded from domestic or defense policy information,” Robra told the editorial network Germany (RND).
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has expressed skepticism about the chances of success of a possible AfD ban procedure. “We are welcome to check this again and again, but from my point of view it is a very high hurdle,” said the CDU chairman at a joint press conference with EU Council President António Costa in Berlin.
