Germany’s conservative CDU rule out deals with AfD or Left party

The leader of Germany’s conservative parliamentary group, Jens Spahn, on Saturday firmly ruled out any cooperation with both the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Left Party.

Speaking at a national gathering of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Stuttgart, Spahn accused the hard-left party of having “Jew-haters” among its prominent members and of continuing to have socialism in its programme.

He also sharply criticized the far-right AfD of being close to Russia and cronyism. “They have completely lost their way,” he said.

He personally attacked The Left party parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek, comparing her with the former leader of communist East Germany, Erich Honecker. “In the end, it won’t be any better with Comrade Reichinnek than it was with Comrade Honecker,” he said.

Referring to a recent scandal involving AfD members of parliament employing each other’s family members as assistants, Spahn said “this is cronyism, betrayal of the fatherland, betrayal of the taxpayer.”

At its party conference in 2018, the CDU ruled out coalitions and “similar forms of cooperation” with The Left party and the AfD.

The two-day conference comes at the start of a busy electoral year for the CDU, with five state elections due to take place, in March and September.

On Friday, the party rallied behind Chancellor Friedrich Merz, re-electing him as party chairman by a large majority of 91.17% – his second-best result.

Current opinion polls show the AfD ahead of the conservatives in two eastern German states.