Former Green Party Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has issued a strong warning to the CDU, stating that the party should avoid any coalition with the AfD. Speaking to the “Tagesspiegel”, Fischer noted that there is a current internal debate within the CDU about the possibility of cooperating with, or even forming a coalition with, the AfD-a collaboration he asserts would spell the end of the CDU and severely destabilize Germany.
Fischer advised the CDU to closely examine the decline of the Italian Democrazia Cristiana, particularly the CDU members who express a desire to govern with the AfD. He further stated that he would believe the CDU leader, Friedrich Merz, if he guaranteed that he would never cooperate with the AfD.
Looking at the currently high polling numbers of the AfD, Fischer warned that allowing the AfD into government responsibilities would constitute a serious blow to German democracy and would cause international confidence in Germany to collapse. He pointed out that the AfD’s demand for re-nationalization is already the most significant domestic political challenge. He added that if nationalists take power in the most important countries of Europe, the continent will have no future. Fischer admitted he does not know if he could live in Germany if the AfD were to govern or even appoint a federal chancellor, admitting that “An AfD federal chancellor would be tough”.
The long-time leading figure in the Greens also described the prospect of an AfD regional minister-president, such as in Saxony-Anhalt, as terrifying. He emphasized that there is nothing to minimize about this, stating that an AfD government would jeopardize freedom of culture and science and call into question the independence of the judiciary. With an AfD minister-president, fundamental parts of the liberal constitution would be threatened.
Fischer cautioned that if Saxony-Anhalt voted in September as current polls suggest, the local people would pay a steep price-and so would the rest of Germany. Furthermore, he suggested that if the AfD gained power in any country, Poland and France would look inward and wonder if a similar descent was occurring. The global question would then become, “Are the Germans going crazy again?”
Fischer himself was the first Green Foreign Minister and Deputy Chancellor from 1998 to 2005. He had previously served as the Greens’ first minister in 1985-1987, holding the position of Environmental Minister in Hesse.
