CDU’s Dennis Radtke warns party against normalizing AfD
Dennis Radtke, the head of the employee wing of the CDU, warns his party against normalizing the AfD. In an interview with the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” Radtke, who sits in the European Parliament, says, “One can observe in other European countries what a strategy of approaching right-wing populist forces with conservative parties does. In Austria, the ÖVP has crashed in the polls and in France and Italy, the Christian Democrats are hardly present anymore. These are not success stories. Why should we as CDU repeat this mistake?”
Union fraction vice Jens Spahn had called for a week earlier for the CDU to treat the AfD as any other opposition party in the Bundestag, which led to a new debate on how to deal with the right-wing party.
Radtke rejects this idea. The goal of the AfD is to “split and destroy” the CDU, said Radtke. “A party that is at least partly observed by the constitutional protection, whose protagonists can be called fascists after court rulings – such a party must never be in power. Therefore, I consider normalization to be the wrong path.”
Instead, the Union should focus on political content. “The coalition agreement is a good basis. Especially when it comes to migration, we see a clear course change.”
Meanwhile, established parties were warned by Tübingen’s Oberbürgermeister and former Green politician Boris Palmer against excluding the AfD. “We make ourselves vulnerable as democrats if it can be perceived that we bend the rules of democracy to suit us” said Palmer to “Die Zeit.” “These rules apply to everyone, even to assholes.”
The issue of exclusion is one of the main voices for the AfD, said Palmer. “People say: If we say what we think, we will be defamed and treated like fools. This strengthens their decision to vote for us.”
However, Palmer said he is against the AfD joining the government. “It would be a catastrophe if these people came to power. I believe they are not capable of governing the country. I have looked at their program: Implementing it would seriously harm Germany.