German parliament backs resolution on migration with far-right votes
According to REUTERS, Germany's opposition conservatives won parliamentary approval on Wednesday for a proposal to drastically restrict migration with the help of votes from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), breaking a taboo on cooperation with the far-right.
The proposal is non-binding but the role of the AfD in passing them is symbolically important in Germany, which faces a national election on Feb. 23 in which the far-right party is tipped to emerge as the second largest after the conservatives.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's CDU/CSU conservative bloc, is keen to seize the initiative on migration policy, which has shifted sharply back into focus after an Afghan asylum seeker was arrested over deadly stabbings last week.
Merz presented two non-binding motions in parliament calling for heightened security measures and the closure of German land borders to irregular migration, prompting hours of emotionally charged debate in the Bundestag lower house.
With Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens opposed to the motions, however, Merz knew he would have to rely on support of the AfD. The land border measure passed with a slim majority of just three votes, while the security proposal was rejected.
Critics including Scholz argue that Merz's tactics shatter the taboo among mainstream parties against working with the AfD - a party which is monitored by German security services on suspicion of being right-wing extremist - in an effort to keep it from power.
"Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany over 75 years ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats: We do not make common cause with the extreme right," Scholz said in a speech to parliament.
"You have broken this basic consensus of our republic in the heat of the moment," he told Merz.
Scholz warned of a possible future coalition between the conservatives and the AfD after the election, even though Merz's party currently rules out such a scenario.
