German centre-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz expressed his opposition on Tuesday to potentially forming coalitions with populists or far-left parties in order to keep the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) out of power in eastern German states.
Merz said he doesn't think his Christian Democrats (CDU) should consider working with the upstart populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which broke away from the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) party and has been campaigning on a mix of left-wing social policy and anti-immigrant views. Wagenknecht has also demanded an immediate end to military aid for Ukraine.
Merz accused the party's founder, Sahra Wagenknecht, of holding extreme far-right views on some issues and far-left views on others. Merz doubled-down on the CDU's policy against co-operating with either the AfD or Die Linke.
"We do not work together with such far-right and far-left parties," Merz said during an appearance on German television on Monday evening, claiming both labels apply to Wagenknecht. "We want to win majorities."
But the state-level CDU party in the central state of Thuringia continued to signal an openness to working with the BSW, despite Merz's comments.
State parliamentary elections in Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony are scheduled for September. All three states are located in the former communist East Germany, where support for the AfD - as well as Wagenknecht's BSW - is particularly strong.
There are concerns that very broad-based coalitions may be required to keep the AfD out of power in all three states.
The AfD ran well ahead of all other parties in the former East Germany in Sunday's European Parliament election results.
Wagenknecht responded on Tuesday by calling Merz childish.