Germany: CDU leader Merz reaches out to AfD – fight the bosses’ attacks on migrants!

Last Wednesday, the right-wing CDU led by Friedrich Merz tore down the symbolic ‘firewall’ that was supposed to prevent establishment parties in Germany from cooperating with the reactionary Alternative for Germany (AfD). The CDU proposed a racist asylum bill in the Bundestag, fully aware that it would receive a majority if the AfD voted in favour. This was the first time that the AfD has been able to influence a significant political decision in the parliament. Together with the votes of the liberal FDP, the bill was passed.

[Originally published in German at derkommunist.de]

Scapegoating migrants

Friedrich Merz is a longstanding representative of capital and therefore knows very well that neither refugees nor benefits claimants are to blame for the misery that prevails in Germany.

The capitalists are to blame for inflation, deindustrialisation and decaying infrastructure. For decades, large corporations have refused to invest in modern production facilities (let alone infrastructure), even though they have the necessary cash to do so, not least due to state subsidies. But instead of investing this money productively, they prefer to distribute it as dividends to their shareholders.

As a result, German industry is no longer competitive internationally. As long as cheap Russian gas was still flowing, the prices of German industrial products were still able to keep up with the competition to some extent. But with the decision to support US imperialism in the Ukraine war, the German ruling class shot itself in the foot, because Russian gas stopped flowing – particularly after the Americans blew up Nord Stream 2. This has resulted in a 20 percent drop in production in German industry over the last two years.

The policies that made all of this possible were largely supported by the CDU, as well as the other establishment parties. Merz and the CDU are now whipping up the disgusting asylum debate in order to distract attention from their own complicity in this misery and to win the next election. They are not shying away from working with the AfD, a party that has spearheaded a number of reactionary policies, including attacks against asylum seekers, women and LGBT people.

How do we stop the AfD?

Last Wednesday showed just how little the ‘democratic’ parties can be relied upon to fight the AfD. While the AfD can merely dream of deporting migrants, the CDU, FDP, Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens are actually putting this into practice, as is the Left Party in the states where it governs as part of local coalitions.

This vile, racist migration debate was also fuelled by the SPD and the Greens. In autumn 2023, for example, SPD leader Olaf Scholz stated that “we must finally begin deportations on a grand scale”, only to be outraged by the AfD’s ‘remigration plans’ a few months later. In the recent parliamentary debate, the SPD complained that the CDU had not worked with them on their asylum law. They would be more than willing to support racist restrictions on asylum laws, in a similar way to the AfD. The SPD’s criticism that the AfD is racist is therefore not to be taken seriously.

The AfD can present itself to its voters as the ‘voice of truth’ because it attacks the hypocrisy of the liberal left / Image: Olaf Kosinsky, Wikimedia Commons

The SPD and the Greens are fuelling this dishonest asylum debate, because they too have supported the policies of recent years that have led Germany into its present crisis and now want to distract attention from themselves.

The vote on a law ‘against antisemitism’ on the same day shows that the much-vaunted ‘firewall’ is nothing more than an empty phrase for the SPD, Greens and the Left Party. This new law mandates schools and universities to take action against ‘antisemitism’, using the toughest legal means available to them. This is an obvious and extremely cynical cover for harsh repression against students that express solidarity with Palestine and it is a blatant attack on democratic rights.

The law was passed jointly with votes from the SPD, Greens, CDU, FDP and AfD, while the Left Party shamefully abstained. Already during the first vote on an ‘antisemitism resolution’ in the Bundestag last autumn, Beatrix von Storch (AfD) thanked the Greens for finally recognising that antisemitism was supposedly being imported by Muslim migrants.

By protecting the profits of the capitalists and shifting the burden of the crisis onto the masses, the establishment parties, including the SPD, the Greens and even the Left Party at state level, have also prepared the ground for the rise of the AfD. The AfD is only strong because it taps into the justified anger of sections of the working class and petty bourgeoisie against the ruling class, which it diverts into reactionary channels with its racist and misogynistic demagogy.

The AfD can present itself to its voters as the ‘voice of truth’ because it attacks the hypocrisy of the liberal left. While the Greens are driving women into poverty with their cuts, they are at the same time lecturing the working class on how to appropriately use grammatical genders. While the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party invoke the memory of Auschwitz, they use it to support Israel's genocide against the Palestinians. It is only too understandable that many are disgusted by this hypocrisy.

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance can also tap into the justified anger towards the liberal establishment. But with its racist position on asylum seekers, it is helping to conceal the true causes of the crisis and decline in the country and is instead actually supporting the capitalist system.

The Left Party and the reformist trade union leaders bear the greatest responsibility for the rise of the AfD in all of this. Instead of organising the fight against deindustrialisation, inflation and war, they support the government's course and cling to the status quo.

Heidi Reichinnek (parliamentary leader of the Left Party) complained in parliament that the CDU had spoken to the AfD but not to the Left Party. She then implicitly called for the police to be rearmed in light of the recent stabbings in Magdeburg and Aschaffenburg.

Instead of presenting a radical alternative, the Left Party clung to the establishment and is now consequently perceived by many as a part of it. As a result, the AfD remains the only force that is giving a voice to the anger against the establishment.

The ‘firewall’ runs between the classes!

We must now take to the streets en masse to oppose the AfD and Merz's racist agitation. But demonstrations alone are not enough. The mass demonstrations at the beginning of last year were unable to prevent the AfD’s electoral successes in the European elections and the state elections in the east. This was because these demonstrations were led by the ruling class themselves. Representatives of the establishment such as Olaf Scholz (SPD), Annalena Baerbock (Greens) or the President of the Federal Bank spoke at these events or helped promote them. Hundreds of major German corporations signed an appeal not to vote for the AfD.

We must now take to the streets en masse to oppose the AfD and Merz's racist agitation. But demonstrations alone are not enough / Image: Zinnmann, Wikimedia Commons

To fight the AfD, we have to fight the causes of the capitalist crisis: capitalism itself and the German capitalist class! This is not possible through the establishment, ‘democratic’ parties, which in reality do not carry out the will of the masses, but that of the capitalists. They shed crocodile tears over the racism of the AfD while they themselves pursue a racist asylum policy. The fight against the AfD can only be successful through militant strikes and a full mobilisation of the trade unions.

But above all, we need a genuine alternative to capitalist decline. We must be prepared to organise the struggle against the ruling class and actually represent the interests of the mass of the population, the working class! That is why we founded the Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) in Germany. In fact, the ‘firewall’ does not run between the ‘democratic parties’ and the AfD, as Heidi “we are the firewall” Reichinneck and the Left Party believe. The true firewall runs between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Refugees stay! Let the capitalists pay!

Trade unions must launch an offensive against deindustrialisation, inflation and war!

Build the RKP!