Germany's CDU vows to tackle far-right

The leader of Germany's main conservative political party has pledged to expel far-right supporters and confront the increasingly popular fringe party Alternative for Deutschland, or AfD, over the issue of immigration, after criticism that he was drifting too close to its position.

Friedrich Merz is leader of the Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, which is now in opposition after its previous leader, Angela Merkel, served four terms and 16 years as the country's chancellor.

Last year, it emerged that a group called the Values Union had been in talks with the AfD, which is growing in popularity nationwide from its heartland in the former East Germany, about plans to deport "unassimilated" citizens.

German investigative journalism organization Correctiv reported that around 20 people, including senior AfD figures, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, attended a secret meeting near Potsdam, at which two CDU members also reportedly participated, discussing topics including so-called remigration — the removal of people of non-German ethnic backgrounds, even if they have citizenship.

"At the next party congress, I will bring a motion making Values Union membership incompatible with CDU membership," Merz said on Saturday.

Merkel was seen by some observers to be more centrist than she was truly conservative, and was famously pro-immigration, saying in a speech in 2015 about international migration "If we start having to apologize for showing a friendly face in an emergency situation, then this is not my country".

Merz has a more traditionally conservative approach to the issue, and last December the CDU published a new manifesto, in which it said: "All those who want to live here must accept our guiding culture, without ifs and buts."

All mainstream parties in Germany have been criticized for devoting too much attention to the AfD's main concerns, particularly immigration, which is seen as reinforcing its position as a party of influence that is shaping the political agenda.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also spoken recently of the need to tighten up immigration rules, but at the same time Germany faces a major skills shortage that requires immigrants to fill key roles.

"We are going to target the AfD," Merz added. "On their Europe policy, on their foreign policy, and their ties to Russia, and especially on their economic policy ... Many entrepreneurs have sympathies for the AfD."

Last July, Merz provoked outrage among high-ranking officials in his own party, which has long maintained a so-called firewall of noncooperation with the AfD, when he told public broadcaster ZDF that he may be willing to relax that stance at a local level, and even described the CDU as "an Alternative for Germany — with substance".

Reuters reports that the CDU is currently scoring only around 30 percent in opinion polls, which is poor by its standards, while the AfD is making ground, on 24 percent. Both are well ahead of Scholz's struggling Social Democrats.