On Wednesday evening Markus Lanz on ZDF spoke to his guests about the parties’ dealings with the AfD. Above all, the question of possible alliances in East Germany was the focus of the discussion.

Palmer is thinking about working with the AfD

The former Green Party politician and today Tübingen Mayor Boris Palmer focused on the upcoming state elections, for example in Saxony-Anhalt. He even discussed cooperation between the CDU and AfD. “I believe that alternatives should be weighed up argumentatively,” said Palmer. He hopes that the AfD could lose strength through government responsibility: “Perhaps we can make it smaller in a more successful way. Governing is tiring!”

Palmer warned against making the party strong only through demarcation. In the end, it is more dangerous to “let them grow behind the firewall.” He emphasized: “I’m not saying it works. But I think we have to regain the openness to discuss strategies. Because so far it’s been heavily moralized and I don’t think we’ve done so well with it so far.”

Münkler warns against the CDU as a junior partner of the AfD

Political scientist Herfried Münkler strongly warned the group against a joint government between the CDU and AfD. He expected that such an opening would primarily benefit the AfD. “It is then quite certain that the AfD will march through with (…) 39 percent or something like that and the CDU is, so to speak, the junior partner,” said Münkler.

In his opinion, cooperation with the AfD would seriously damage the Christian Democrats. It would “lead to the CDU having the problems that the Social Democrats are currently having. And that’s why they should keep their hands off it.”

Von Beust is considering leaving the CDU from the AfD coalition

For CDU politician Ole von Beust, cooperation with the AfD was out of the question. The former mayor of Hamburg made it clear to Lanz that he would draw personal consequences in the event of such a coalition. He would “consider” leaving the CDU.

Von Beust harshly rejected any form of collaboration. “You simply can’t make agreements with people like that!” he shouted to the group. He continued to say about the AfD: “Getting involved with these ethnic Hanseln is completely out of the question!”
You can watch the entire broadcast view here.