CNN —As Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) grows ever popular, the country’s once dominant Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party finds itself at a crossroads.
The center-right CDU was in power for much of Germany’s post-war era and oversaw the reunification of East and West Germany.
Max Schwarz/ReutersBerlin’s CDU mayor, Kai Wegner, took to X to write: “What cooperation is there to be had?
Populist parties as ‘lightning rods’The CDU’s Michael Kretschmer, state premier of Saxony, believes a shift in policy is the best approach for democratic parties to stop the rise of the far-right.
Opinion polls in his state, one of the five that make up Germany’s former east, put the AfD in the lead; Saxony has long been a stronghold for the far-right party.
Persons:
Angela Merkel, Friedrich Merz, shockwaves, Merz, Merz backpedaled, ”, Robert Sesselmann, Max Schwarz, Kai Wegner, Jörg, “, ” “, Kühne, ” Tino Chrupalla, John MacDougall, Merkel, it’s, sadi, Michael Kretschmer, Kretschmer
Organizations:
CNN, Christian Democratic Union, CDU, East, Social, Green Party and Free Democrats, ZDF, Reuters Berlin’s CDU, INSA, New, SPD, Greens, ARD, Bundestag, Getty, Federal Criminal Police, UN, UNHCR, “, Citizens
Locations:
Germany, West Germany, Sonneberg, Thuringia, Germany’s, Saxony, Leipzig, West, East Germany, East Germans, West Germans, Saxony Anhalt, Ukraine, Poland, Syria