In the 2025 German election, AfD was the second-largest party and received 20.8 per cent vote and secured 152 seats. Last week, a poll discovered that the party is the most popular party in Germany. It received 25 per cent while Chancellor-in-Waiting Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc received 24 per cent.
AfD Makes Its Way to Mainstream
With its 152 seats, the AfD qualifies to sit in a number of parliamentary committees and even lead them.
Yet, the centrist German parties have thus far united to deny the the party representation in committees and parliamentary vice presidency. That is set to change as there are voices within the CDU/CSU bloc that advocate for cooperation with AfD for two reasons.
To begin with, they opine that AfD is the voice of the people and ignoring it further would amount to turning away those voters.
Senior CDU leader Jens Spahn told Bild that the AfD should be treated “in parliamentary procedures and processes like any other opposition party” and that the far-right party’s MPs were “sitting there in such strength because voters wanted to tell us something” and that “we should take these voters seriously”.
Secondly, they argued that the boycott of AfD would continue to allow the party to play a victim card and get more supporters.
CDU/CSU parliamentary group deputy chair Johann Wadephul said the boycott enables the AfD to play the victim. He added that he has no issue supporting the party to occupy committee chairs if their candidates “haven’t acted inappropriately in the past.”
The CDU’s strategy seems to give the far-right responsibilities and air-time in the hope people will find it distasteful, according to Politico.
Over the years, some AfD lawmakers have built ties with members of other parties behind closed doors and have received signals of support, AfD officials told Politico.
But Not Everyone Seems Unconvinced
Even as there is faction of CDU/CSU bloc that is open to engaging with the AfD, everyone is not on board.
Senior lawmaker Roderich Kiesewetter told RBB that the party is “a security threat to Germany” and that “AfD lawmakers don’t belong in the parliamentary oversight panel that monitors the intelligence services just as little as in the budget trust committee”.
Similarly, CDU/CSU’s coalition partner SPD is also against the AfD’s mainstreaming.
“The AfD is not a party like any other. We will protect our democratic institutions above all our parliament with full determination,” SPD parliamentary secretary Katja Mast told Tagesspiegel.
There could be another obstacle to party’s mainstreaming as yet. The CDU/CSU-SPD coalition agreement requires the parties to avoid “any co-operation” with the far right “at all political levels”, Euractiv reports.
