One of the top issues in upcoming German elections is migration, which has helped fuel the rise of the anti-immigrant, far-right AfD. Some worry that the conservatives, led by chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz, could be open to working with the AfD.
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00:00It's been a messy couple of weeks for Friedrich Merz.
00:03On the one hand, he's set the agenda with his calls for tougher migration rules.
00:08On the other, he's ignited a debate about whether he would form a coalition with the
00:12far-right AFD, despite insisting he would not.
00:16The pressure comes after he relied on the votes of the AFD to push through a motion
00:20on migration, breaking a taboo.
00:22For me, they're Nazis, and I don't want that again.
00:27So far to the right, that's not on.
00:30Of course, working together?
00:32No way.
00:33Merz also said, well, something that he introduces as a motion can't be wrong from the outset
00:38just because the wrong people agree.
00:41The fact that it went to parliament and actually people voted it, and it was not the far-right
00:47that brought it into motion, it was scary.
00:50I actually wanted to vote CDU, but the fact that he... he bothered me a lot, quite honestly.
00:59There's a risk for Friedrich Merz that his attempt to wrestle the migration issue from
01:03the AFD could backfire and raise his questions about his credibility, although market traders
01:09here support his policies.
01:13You feel you've been left alone, and then you have the thought, close the borders, maybe
01:17it will be better.
01:19Closing the borders again, I'm absolutely for that.
01:22The CDU says we don't work with them, but we get support from this party for the things
01:28we want to get done.
01:31And that's why I don't really see the CDU as credible.
01:35Others are concerned that border controls could divide Europe.
01:42To create Europe, politicians invested a lot of their time, invested a lot of their efforts
01:47in it.
01:49And if we throw it all away, I don't know where that will lead.
01:55Where will this all end up?
02:00For some, the mood in the country, an alarming echo of Germany's past.
02:05For the last one month, I felt that this history is coming true, to an extent that I am planning
02:14to get my investments so that I'm ready to go.
02:17You're planning to kind of make arrangements?
02:20I'm making arrangements because I also have kids, and it started like that, right?
02:25From history.
02:27And this is the fear I have.
02:29A reminder that for many, there is much more than an election at stake.