Can the CDU break the promise of not collaborating with the AfD? Or is there a guarantee? If those two form a coalition it would dominate all other possible coalitions. It feels like there’s a lot of overlap between the two.
There is never a guarantee, elected representatives can vote however they want.
But if they break that promise, there will be huge demonstrations and strikes everywhere.
The CDU will lose most of their core voters, and a large number of their members.
The much more likely outcome would be that Merz loses all internal support as soon as he announces it.
They can do whatever they like. Politicians and political parties are in no way bound to their promises, which they like to show off once more every election cycle.
It’s possible, but not likley in this election-cycle. If they have to choose between a coalition with one or more left parties and the AFD, it is possible that they will indeed choose the right wing option, since they are, as you point out correctly, much closer in their ideology.
I don’t see that happening on the federal level, yet. On the state level, it seems very likely to me that we will have a CDU-AfD coalition in one of the former GDR states some time in the next years. Depending how things develop, I’m also afraid of it happening on the federal level in the next elections. But for now, there’s still too many CDU MPs as well as voters (e. g. my parents) who would be diametrically opposed to a coalition with the AfD. While I don’t trust Merz at all, I think he knows that it would lead to massive trouble from within his own party, something he cannot risk at this point in time.
Can the CDU break the promise of not collaborating with the AfD? Or is there a guarantee? If those two form a coalition it would dominate all other possible coalitions. It feels like there’s a lot of overlap between the two.
There is never a guarantee, elected representatives can vote however they want.
But if they break that promise, there will be huge demonstrations and strikes everywhere.
The CDU will lose most of their core voters, and a large number of their members.
The much more likely outcome would be that Merz loses all internal support as soon as he announces it.
They can do whatever they like. Politicians and political parties are in no way bound to their promises, which they like to show off once more every election cycle.
It’s possible, but not likley in this election-cycle. If they have to choose between a coalition with one or more left parties and the AFD, it is possible that they will indeed choose the right wing option, since they are, as you point out correctly, much closer in their ideology.
I don’t see that happening on the federal level, yet. On the state level, it seems very likely to me that we will have a CDU-AfD coalition in one of the former GDR states some time in the next years. Depending how things develop, I’m also afraid of it happening on the federal level in the next elections. But for now, there’s still too many CDU MPs as well as voters (e. g. my parents) who would be diametrically opposed to a coalition with the AfD. While I don’t trust Merz at all, I think he knows that it would lead to massive trouble from within his own party, something he cannot risk at this point in time.