October 29, 2025
German conservatives call for greater distance from AfD
Members of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) have called on the conservative party to boost its ratings by distancing itself even more clearly from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Around 30 CDU members have launched a new inner-party grouping called “Compass Mitte” (Compass Center) which they say is aimed at emphasizing the social values of the party in order to win back the support of centrist and left-leaning voters, rather than trying to appease those voters tempted by the populist AfD.
“We cannot be satisfied with 28.6% at the last federal election,” said the grouping in a declaration seen by broadsheet newspaper Die Zeit. “We need a course correction to ensure that the CDU can reach the 40% mark expected of a real major party. This means making the social and liberal values of the CDU more visible in order to attract more people.”
Former CDU general secretary Ruprecht Polenz, one of the new grouping’s initiators, said he was concerned that, under Merz, the party is focusing too much on narrow values on the right of the party and disillusioning voters elsewhere on the political spectrum.
“There is a growing nervousness in the party because our approval ratings aren’t improving,” Polenz told Die Zeit. “The CDU risks losing its values if it only considers itself a purely conservative party.”
For Polenz and “Compass Mitte,” one way for Merz and the CDU to become more attractive to the broader German public would be to distance themselves even more clearly from the far-right AfD, a party they would like to see banned.
“The CDU was founded in the knowledge that fascists have only ever come to power with the help of conservatives,” the group says. “There must therefore be absolutely zero political cooperation between the CDU and the right-wing extremist AfD.”
However, there are other elements within the CDU calling for a very different approach to the AfD.
Last week, CDU lawmakers in the eastern state of Saxony, a bastion of AfD support, called for a more “pragmatic” approach to the extremists and not to shy away from relying on AfD support in parliament just to maintain the so-called “firewall” against the far-right.
“Of course it’s preferable when lawmakers from our coalition partners support our plans, but we shouldn’t refrain from doing the right thing or even do damaging things just for their benefit,” said Sven Eppinger, a CDU member of the state parliament in Saxony who chairs the “Heimatunion” (Homeland Union) of “patriotic” conservatives.
“Just because ‘the wrong people’ [AfD lawmakers] think something is right, doesn’t make it wrong.”
