The parliamentary business manager of the Union in the German Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, has rejected the criticism of former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) regarding the acceptance of AfD votes in the vote on a Union request in the Bundestag. “I believe it was right to submit the two motions to a vote yesterday and I also believe it was right to discuss and decide on the border control law in the German Bundestag tomorrow” Frei told the TV station “Welt” on Thursday in response to Merkel’s criticism.
The power structure in the Bundestag has indeed changed, Frei said. “Since November 6, the situation is that for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic, there are no longer any majorities in the German Bundestag. That is correct. But of course, the world has fundamentally changed with the attacks in Magdeburg and Aschaffenburg” the faction manager added.
Frei claimed that the SPD and the Greens showed no willingness to act. “There is no understanding of the fact that the federal government in this situation does not act and, on the other hand, is not even willing to discuss and deliberate on our proposals and thus to move from talking to acting” he said.
In a rare statement, the former Chancellor had previously criticized the first joint vote of the Union and FDP with the AfD. She believes it is wrong “to enable a majority with the votes of the AfD for the first time in a Bundestag vote, seen with open eyes” Merkel wrote on her website on Thursday.
The former Chancellor first reminded of the chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and the CDU and CSU’s chancellor candidate, Friedrich Merz, who in his speech on November 13, 2024, had announced that he would agree with the SPD and the Greens to only put decisions on the parliamentary agenda that had been previously agreed upon, so that neither the determination of the agenda nor the votes in the house would ever result in a majority with the AfD.
“This – now broken – proposal and the attitude associated with it were an expression of great state political responsibility, which I fully support” Merkel said. “I think it is wrong to no longer feel bound by this proposal and thereby enable a majority with the AfD votes for the first time in a Bundestag vote, seen with open eyes, on January 29, 2025” she added.
The former Chancellor called for a return to a different tone and substantively European law-compliant proposals. It is “necessary for all democratic parties to come together, not as tactical maneuvers, but in the substance, honestly, in a moderate tone and on the basis of existing European law, to do everything to prevent such terrible attacks like the recent ones in Magdeburg and Aschaffenburg from happening in the future” Merkel said.