German Mayor’s AfD Alliance Puts Merz’s Firewall Policy Under Pressure

A local mayor in Germany affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union has triggered a fresh political crisis for party leader Friedrich Merz after openly endorsing a strategy that would rely on AfD support to secure an electoral outcome — a move that cuts directly against the CDU’s longstanding commitment to exclude the far-right party from any form of political cooperation.

Bernd Prange, the CDU mayor in question, has reportedly expressed a preference for his opponents to win an outright majority in the relevant local contest rather than see his own party forced into a compromise with centrist rivals — while simultaneously signalling openness to arrangements that would, in effect, allow the Alternative für Deutschland to play a kingmaking role. The position has been described in German media as a direct challenge to the so-called firewall, the informal but publicly stated rule that CDU politicians at all levels of government should refuse to govern with or depend upon the AfD.

For Merz, who has navigated a turbulent relationship with the firewall since assuming the CDU leadership, the episode arrives at a sensitive moment. Earlier this year, Merz drew fierce criticism after shepherding a parliamentary motion on migration policy that passed only with AfD votes in the Bundestag — the first time since the Second World War that a major piece of legislation advanced in Germany’s federal parliament with decisive support from the far right. That episode provoked protests across the country and accusations that the CDU was normalising the AfD.

Local Politics, National Consequences

While Prange’s manoeuvre is rooted in local municipal dynamics, its symbolic weight extends well beyond city hall. Critics within the CDU and across the broader centre-left argue that each incremental breach of the firewall makes the next one easier to justify, gradually eroding the cordon sanitaire that Germany’s mainstream parties have maintained around the AfD since it entered the Bundestag in 2017. According to reports, senior CDU figures are divided over how firmly to respond to Prange’s stance, with some calling for disciplinary measures and others urging caution to avoid inflaming internal divisions ahead of key regional votes.

The AfD, meanwhile, has made significant electoral gains in recent years, finishing second in the February 2025 federal elections and consolidating its position as a dominant force in several eastern German states. Its growing vote share has made it increasingly difficult for mainstream parties to form workable majorities at the local and regional levels without either courting the far right or assembling unwieldy multi-party coalitions.

Germany is not alone in wrestling with this dilemma. Across Europe, centre-right parties from Austria to Sweden have faced pressure to decide whether cooperation with nationalist and far-right movements represents a pragmatic accommodation of voter sentiment or a dangerous legitimisation of anti-democratic forces. In Germany, however, the historical weight of that question carries particular resonance.

Merz now faces the challenge of reasserting the firewall’s credibility without alienating local CDU officials who feel hemmed in by coalition arithmetic on the ground. How he responds to the Prange affair is likely to be watched closely both within Germany and by European partners monitoring the trajectory of the continent’s largest democracy.