The commotion in the Berlin political establishment and the mainstream media after the events of the 210th Bundestag session in the Berlin Reichstag caused sharp criticism, dismay and immediate assessments and warnings. Only the CDU is attacked as a “calculating” applicant. The Greens speak of “a black day for democracy”. SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich explained: “The Union has broken out of the political center of this house.”
Long faces in the Reichstag among the CDU, SPD, Greens and Left. Enthusiasm among the AfD, as the rough summary of the first reactions after the result became known, the narrow result of 348 yes votes and 345 no votes to the “Resolution of the CDU/CSU faction”.
The SPD leadership called all present MPs to a publicity-generating election press conference in the Reichstag. The SPD-affiliated RedaktionsNetzwerkDeutschland (RND) reported: “After the Bundestag’s approval of the Union’s proposal for a hardening of the migration policy, SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich requested a session break. After such a vote, one ‘should not simply move on to the day’s agenda’.”
On the morning of the day, the party’s social media team published a reaction video on the result of the vote. On the X-Posting, it says: “Friedrich Merz and the CDU have for the first time partnered with the right-wing extremists in the Bundestag. With your vote, we protect the Brandmauer. For decency and democracy in Germany. It’s not too late yet.”
In none of the reactions from politics and media, including the FDP’s 88 votes without which the proposal would not have been successful, is there a criticism. Chancellor Scholz explained in the ARD the previous evening that the 29th of January would likely be “a very significant day in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.” The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, is quoted as saying: “It is clear that in the interest of our society, a change in the handling of illegal migration in Germany is necessary. I find it disappointing that the democratic political forces in our country – also in election campaigns – were not able to come to a common agreement and thus gave the AfD this stage.”
Grüne-Co-Faction leader Katharina Dröge explained after a special session the previous evening: “You see us quite shaken. An application has received a majority only because a right-wing extremist faction agreed. It needs a commitment from him [Friedrich Merz] that he will not repeat this in the future.”
Ricarda Lang from the Greens summarized: “Friedrich Merz is from now on a puppet of the AfD.”
The Bild-Zeitung titled the evening, the Tagesschau reported about it in its 8 o’clock news: “After the majority thanks to AfD: More than a thousand demonstrators in front of the CDU headquarters.”
The demonstration carried the motto: “Brandmauer instead of arson.” Invited were, among others, Amnesty International, the organization “Seebrücke” and the “Protest alliance ‘Widersetzen'”. According to the Bild-Zeitung, a speaker described the Konrad-Adenauer-House as the “House of Shame”.
The ZDF informed the GEZ-payers about the course of events in the Reichstag, referring to the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism that took place before the debate:
“(..) there was a commemoration of the victims of the NS era and especially of the liberation of Auschwitz 80 years ago. We are thinking of a civilization’s rupture, of humanity’s crimes that are still not to be grasped. That also includes the reminder that this did not suddenly and irreversibly come overnight. The Nazi regime built itself up over years. It had step-by-step supporters and it used democratic means to come to power.”
SPD Interior Minister Nancy Faeser also criticized the Union parties, who, in her opinion, are currently “history-forgotten” and acting, to quote her exactly: “CDU and CSU have today left the democratic center of the Bund for the first time. The Union has made common cause with the right-wing populists of the AfD to pass undemocratic resolutions.”
On the other hand, AfD Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel asked the CDU, “whether one will continue to maintain the Brandmauer, which, in our view and in democracy, is undemocratic.” Weidel recognized in the Bundestag vote a “great day for democracy”, explaining: “We see that there are bourgeois majorities and that reasonable applications can be passed.”
Chancellor Scholz presented himself in the ARD with a rather gloomy tone, to convey the impression to the viewers: “And that is why, I believe, the most important thing that must come out of the election – no majority for Black-Blue.”
At an election campaign event on the following Wednesday evening in Potsdam, the green Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also criticized the events of the day: “This democracy, this freedom, this rule of law is what we have and we will defend it with everything we have against constitution enemies, against Nazis, old or new.