The victory of the AFD of the extreme right in the vote of Asylum Rocka the German Parliament

It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Firewall against the extreme right of German political culture. The memory of the Holocaust plays a fundamental role in modern Germany.

Before Wednesday’s vote, Bundestag celebrated its annual commemoration for the victims of the Nazis, during which the survivor of the 88 -year -old Holocaust, Roman Schwarzmann, went to Parliament.

The German president, Frank-Walter, Steinmeier, also pronounced a speech to parliamentarians, asking that Nazis’s crimes never forget. There should be no “drawn line” that ends our historical responsibility as Germans, he said.

This directly contradicts the AFD policy, which has criticized the culture of German memory and has defended a broader vision of the country’s history.

That is partly the reason why so many were surprised when Friedrich Merz said last week that he didn’t care if AFD supported his parliamentary movements or not.

This contradicts not only his previous statements, but also the official line of his party, which prohibits conservatives from trusting the extreme right of parliamentary votes.

The AFD sections have been classified as right -wing extremists by national intelligence, but the party is currently surveying in second place, although Merz has ruled out any type of coalition with them.

This week, the last surveys showed that support for the conservative CDU had passed a couple of percentage points to 28%, while the AFD increased slightly to 20%.

AFD leader Alice Weidel said the Firewall is equivalent to an “antidemocratic poster agreement” and has predicted that will fall apart in the coming years.

Opening the door to rely on the support of the extreme right is a bet for Merz, who believes that his increasingly radical position on migration will recover the rightists who are tempted to vote for the AFD.

But in doing so, it could risk losing the support of the center.

With these last parliamentary movements, Merz has definitely said goodbye to the era of his most centrist conservative predecessor, Angela Merkel, who a decade ago said “Wir Schaffen das” or “We can do it” when Germany faced a large number of migrants and refugees.

These movements are symbolic, indicating what conservatives would like to do in power. But they are also a specific signal for voters about who Merz seems prepared to accept support.

Critics say he has broken his word in the Firewall. It is not surprising that the AFD would cheer in Parliament when the result was announced.