Representatives belonging to the parties of the current German federal government are plotting an EU-level influence purge of groups deemed “far-right”, Brussels outlets are now reporting.
Two senior figures from the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) say they are pushing a plan to marginalise MEPs belonging to parties deemed too right-wing over fears such groups are gaining too much influence in the EU capital.
Niclas Herbst and René Repasi, both leaders of their respective centre-right and centre-left parties, are unhappy with recent incidents of Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party opting to vote alongside more right-leaning groups — including the European Conservatives and Reformists group, as well as the Patriots and Europe of Sovereign Nations — in order to pass motions deemed unacceptable to European progressives.
They say that von der Leyen’s group should instead agree to a formal coalition alliance with members of the socialist group in the parliament in order to prevent such incidents from happening again, even if it means the right compromising on some of their political positions.
“If a trade-off is not possible within a file, we need to find a trade-off across files,” Repasi, himself a member of the socialist group, said regarding the plan, saying that any other option would just be handing “easy wins” to populist parties.
Justifying the manoeuvre, the German politicians cited what they described as their “positive experiences” using the tactic to marginalise their country’s populist right at home.
Both the CDU and SPD have consistently implemented a so-called “firewall” policy against the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, banning their members from working with any AfD members on legislation or planned votes.
The success of the strategy has been questionable, with the AfD having become the most popular single political party in Germany by a considerable margain following the decision of the CDU and SPD to enter a coalition together in 2025.
AfD politicians have seen even greater success at the regional level, with the party polling at nearly double the popularity of the next most popular party in Saxony-Anhalt ahead of the state’s parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Located in the country’s east, the state could see the AfD win an outright majority of seats depending on voter turnout, allowing the formation of the first AfD state government.
Such an eventuality would likely result in a political crisis due to the considerable powers held at the state level in Germany, forcing the federal government to either give up on its policy of never working with the AfD or conjure a way of running the country without input from local representatives in one of its key regions.