Manuel Hagel, the CDU’s top candidate for the Baden-Württemberg state election, spent a significant amount of time engaging with AfD representatives during the opening of his party’s federal convention. In his speech on European and euro policy, Hagel warned that the AfD’s agenda would lead to poverty and mass layoffs, framing the situation as a choice between “us” or “them”. He pledged that the CDU of Baden-Württemberg would never cooperate with or form a coalition with the AfD and called voting together with the AfD “distasteful” arguing it would harm the region’s business environment. According to the March 8 polls for the state election, the CDU sits slightly ahead with 29 percent, while the Greens and the AfD are close behind, each drawing around 20‑23 percent.