Germany's conservatives caused an uproar in the Bundestag and among the public when they accepted votes from the far-right Alternative for Germany party to push through a motion to tighten immigration. David McAllister told DW that his party's candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, "did the right thing."
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00:00David McAllister is with me. He's the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.
00:06Mr McAllister in Brussels. I'm sure everybody was also closely following every move of Friedrich Merz,
00:12who many already see as being a pretty safe ticket to potentially become the next Chancellor here in Germany.
00:18How much credibility questions are being asked after he accepted far-right AFD votes to get a motion through the German Parliament?
00:28Germany is the largest country in the European Union, the leading economy,
00:31and that's why what happens in Germany matters for the entire European Union.
00:35Friedrich Merz is on very good track to become the next Chancellor of Germany.
00:39We are way ahead in the polls, ahead of all our opponents and all the other political parties.
00:45And if you were talking about what happened this week in Germany or last week,
00:49I mean, as a matter of fact, we did the right thing, but we got support from some of the wrong colleagues in the German Bundestag.
00:56But still, the population, the majority of the German people are behind what we have proposed to limit migration to Germany,
01:05to strengthen the rights of our border police and also to stop family reunion for those people who are not entitled to stay in Germany anyhow.
01:13So we have the majority of the people behind us.
01:16I deeply regret that socialists and Greens, for tactical reasons, were not ready to work with us together on this important matter.
01:22But now you have people here out on the streets in Germany and it's become almost a moral debate
01:28on whether there could be future actual cooperation with the far-right AFD,
01:33although Friedrich Merz keeps saying that simply is not on the card.
01:36So how much of a hard sell do you expect this to be to the voters here in Germany?
01:40CDU and CSU have been crystal clear.
01:43There will be no form of cooperation with the AFD.
01:46Certainly there will be no form of coalition with the AFD for obvious reasons.
01:51The AFD is totally against what we Christian Democrats in Germany stand for.
01:56The AFD is against NATO.
01:58The AFD is against the European Union.
02:01The AFD is pro-Putin, pro-Russia and against Ukraine.
02:05I mean, these are fundamental issues.
02:07That's why we are fighting the AFD.
02:10We want to convince as many people as possible that every vote for the AFD in the end is a wasted vote.
02:16And at the same time you want to return to the very issue of the economy.
02:20How will your strategy be to talk about what Germans actually themselves in the polling say is their biggest concern,
02:28which is the economy, which is the issue of migration?
02:31Well, we're going to hear our party leader and future Chancellor Friedrich Merz give his speech in a few minutes.
02:36And I'm very sure that he will very much focus on exactly these questions,
02:40the economy and how we can get the German economy back on track.
02:44We now have more than three million unemployed people in Germany.
02:48We are in a recession.
02:50The German economy is falling and that is not good for Germany.
02:54That's not good for the people.
02:55And by the way, it's also not good for Europe.
02:57That's why I'm very sure that we will focus in these last two and a half weeks in the election campaign,
03:02apart from migration, security, defence and other important matters,
03:06on the key topic of how to get Germany more competitive again, because that will be key.
03:13Now, we saw a ferocious attack of all sides against each other in the German parliament last week.
03:19At the same time, the way the German system works, the way the election system is built,
03:23there will be a necessity for these very parties tearing each other apart at the moment
03:29to actually find their way back to form a coalition at the centre.
03:34How can that actually happen?
03:36They called each other liars in parliament.
03:39We are now very much focused the last 20 days on exactly what will happen on election day,
03:44on that Sunday in February, on the 23rd of February.
03:48And afterwards, we will have a look at the results.
03:50And then we will see how we can form a majority in the next German Bundestag.
03:54We will talk to those parties who are pro-European, pro-democratic.
03:59That means there will be no talks at all, not even a single second with the AfD.
04:03And then we will see how much of our manifesto, how much of our program,
04:07we can actually implement with other potential coalition partners.
04:11But as a democrat, I would always say,
04:14democrats among each other must always be ready and willing to find a consensus
04:19and to find a compromise for the benefit of the people.
04:22Now, you're clearly focused on these less than three weeks up to election day on February 23rd.
04:27But Donald Trump has already said, and he actually reiterated,
04:30that there would be terrorists on Europe.
04:32They would be coming soon if they take place before.
04:35How much is the political system, Europe's largest economy,
04:39actually capable of finding a consensus on how to react?
04:43Well, this will be tackled at European level, at EU level.
04:46We are reaching out to the U.S. administration at all levels,
04:51trying to convince the Trump administration that terrorists are the wrong way,
04:55that in the end this will just be a lose-lose situation for both sides.
04:59Because if the Americans start imposing sanctions on us,
05:02the European Union will have to retaliate with sanctions on goods coming from the U.S. to Europe.
05:07And this, in the end, is not good for both sides.
05:10We should strengthen our transatlantic cooperation
05:13and not start a totally unnecessary trade conflict.
05:16David McAllister, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.
05:20Thank you very much.