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Why Germany's anti-AfD firewall is crumbling · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is one of the major reasons why Germany's far
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: right AfD has been locked out of power. The brand
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: or firewall is the unwritten agreement that political parties do
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: not work with the Alternative for Germany Party because they
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: say they are too extreme. But as the AfD has
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: grown in popularity, pressure has been building to scrap the firewall.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Pressure from outside there's no room for firewalls, and pressure
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: from within.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: The firewall is the biggest load of nonsense.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Before we look at how we got here and why
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: it matters, we need to answer some other questions, like
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: why the firewall is rooted in Germany's experience with Adolf
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Hitler's National Socialist Party or the Nazis in the nineteen thirties.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Hitler came to power with the support of conservative.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Politicians who mistakenly believed they could contain him. After the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Allies victory over the Nazis, Germany's post war leaders had
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: learned the lesson.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: The idea was that anti fascists, all stripes had to
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: work together to prevent the disaster that regime from being
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: perpetriated or repeated under regards well.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: So why is the EFD behind the firewall? The AfD
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: began in twenty thirteen as an economically liberal, anti rural party.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: They underwent a radical change around twenty fifteen, adopting a more.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Nationalist position and rhetoric.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: They ran campaigns that warned of Islam, employed dog whistle
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: sometimes racist stereotypes. Senior figures downplayed Germany's culture of remembrance
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and its confrontation with Nazi crimes.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Around that time.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: The conservative CDU party literally wrote down a pledge never
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to work with the AFT. Germany Security Service labeled the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: AfD as a far right extremist threat, citing its anti
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: democratic and nationalist.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Views athos in its ethos, it has virtually nothing to
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: do with the values we associate with liberal democracy.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Who's the response a high rank and conservative gave recently
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: when asked why the CDU don't talk to the a FD.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: And here in Germany we do have a party that
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: has many, many people in their ranks, in their leading ranks,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: that are pro put In, pro Russian, that are anti Semites,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: that are racists.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I put that to Beatrix fon Stock of the AfD.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: She's in charge of breaking down the firewall. Argument made
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: by conservatives is that the AfD and I'm puting, by
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the way, this is that THED is a pretty in
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: friendly party that wants to weaken Germany and that you
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: have anti Semites and right wing extremists in your ranks.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: What are you doing to address that?
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: What do you say to that, we don't have to
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: say anything about it. You know, they tried this all
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: over the last years. They are still you know, struggling
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: and changing their strategy towards a FD. I do understand
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: it's very difficult because they basically have to change their politics,
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: the policy, and they don't want to do that.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: At this stage, you might be wondering, how does the
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: firewall work? In practice?
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: German governments are almost always formed by coalitions.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: The firewall means the other parties rule out governing with
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the AfD.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: That applies to all levels of government, including the European Parliament.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: But it goes further. Look at this.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: The AfD is the second biggest party in the German
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Parliament one hundred and fifty members, around twenty percent of
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the seats. In theory, that means they should get to
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: nominate one of the vice presidents of the Parliament. The
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: AfD should get to chair a fifth of the committees.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: But in practice the other parties refuse to vote for
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the AfD nominees and this infuriates them.
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: We could nominate Jesus Christ and mc gandhi and they
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: wouldn't be voted through.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Jesus Christ certainly wouldn't have been in the AfD.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: The firewall also means that other parties don't support AfD
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: motions or amendments, nor do they rely on AfD votes.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: That's important. So has the firewall ever been breached? The
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: short answer is yes, and it is a huge deal.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Take a look at this photo. In it we see
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the AfD and the CDU voting together in January twenty
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: twenty five.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: How did we get here?
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: One week earlier, a rejected asylum seeker attacked a group
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: of kindergarten children with a knife. He killed one child
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and a man who had intervened. It came in the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: middle of a highly charged election campaign. Merch, then running
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to be Chancellor, called a vote on a sweeping migration motion.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: The other Democratic party said they voted down. He pressed ahead.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: The motion passed with the votes of the AfD. It
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: was unprecedented. The AfD were delighted, while Mergs insisted it
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't cooperation other parties where I.
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: Raped you need to raise the firewall again.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Tens of thousands took to the streets to protest, seemingly
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: unconvinced by Merchant's argument that the vote didn't amount to cooperation.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: It was a genuine tabu break. Mertz was punsed for
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: it at the federal election, as far as we can
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: tell from voter surveys.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: So what's all the fuss about the firewall collapsing?
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: It's just emerged that members of the Conservative group in the.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: European Parliament had been part of a WhatsApp group with
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: far right politicians, including.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: An e FD lawmaker.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: In it, they worked on legislation to toughen asylum rules,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and the AfD hailed it as a historic success.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Chancellor Friedrich Mertz was not happy your Misspeligan.
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: We disapprove of what apparently took place at the staff
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: level last week.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Good for not but the parties on the center left
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and the left have pounced on the news to accuse.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: The Conservatives of betrayal.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: While the AfD says this cooperation is an important step.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: I think this is this is a process we're going
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: through and once it's it's established even more on the
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: European level. This will push the firewall also backwards with
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: down in Germany and we will end with a coalition
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: I'm or working together process of working together in the
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: very end.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: So what's the answer. What can the other political parties do?
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Remember that graph I showed you at the beginning. Well,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the e FD support is especially strong in one region.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: In the last big elections they won all but three
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of the East German constituencies outside Berlin.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: This makes them increasingly hard to.
• 6:24
  Speaker 7: Ignore of Komanale, even lest fear and bundestand under then
• 6:29
  Speaker 7: the ostruction bud.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: At the local level in many states, especially in the East,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: you increasingly can't get anything done without the AfD on board.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Rejecting our proposal just because the AfD supports it only
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: adds to their mythology.
• 6:45
  Speaker 7: Was by the ID in by spring sure the adults
• 6:48
  Speaker 7: of diviter to Chisia.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: The situation led to some soul searching.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: A former CDU leader called where we think of the Firewall,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: suggesting the CDU could maybe work with the AfD on
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: some common issues.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: It triggered a huge debate.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Chance somewhere stuck by the Firewall, seeing the EFT was
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: anti democratic.
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: This party has openly declared its intention to destroy the CDU.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: It wants a different country.
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: That's why the outstretched hand that the AfD keeps holding
• 7:15
  Speaker 6: out is a reality, a hand that seeks to destroy us.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Despite those warnings, some lawmakers at the local level are
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: already embarking on a different approach. Lakapavoda is the mayor
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: of Guards, a town on the police border. Frustrated by
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: traditional party politics, he started his own.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Movement, Freed from the Firewall.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: One on two people here voted for the EFT.
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: We try to keep party politics out of local government
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: because it allows us to work more efficiently and avoid
• 7:46
  Speaker 6: lengthy party debates. People don't want local government to turn
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: into the Bundestag.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Havoda sits on the city council alongside EFD members. His
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: experience tells him that the way to counter the AfD
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: is not through stigmatization, but by showing voters that their
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: concerns are taken seriously.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: If the SPD.
• 8:11
  Speaker 6: CDU would just take a good look at themselves and
• 8:13
  Speaker 6: really maintain a consistent presence in rural areas, many problems
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: would already be solved. And we wouldn't have such strong
• 8:19
  Speaker 6: AfD election results while it giveness stark.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: So we have a hugely symbolic vote in the German Parliament,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: we have cooperation at the European and communal level and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: wider societal pressure.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Take all that together and the firewall is crumbling.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: For the AfD, the strategy is working chipping away at
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the old rules and norms, trying to drive a wedge
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: between the Conservative CDU and the other parties. For the CDU,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the choice is brutal. Do you hold the course, pray
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: that you can perform an economic miracle that re energizes
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the party with the risk of failing and potentially losing
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: even more support, or do you dismantle the firewall and
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: start working with the AA. But that could split the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: party right down the middle, and voters too may just
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: decide to give up on the CDU, Which brings us
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: back to Friedrich Mertz. If he is right, it's an
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: existential dilemma that could not only have a profound impact
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: on his Conservative party but Germany as we know it.