Support for Germany's conservative bloc dropped by three points following its chancellor candidate's announcement about implementing a stricter migration policy in collaboration with the far right, according to a survey released four weeks prior to the federal election.
In an attempt to take the lead on asylum policy, opposition leader Friedrich Merz pledged to seal Germany's land borders to prevent irregular migration, in response to a recent incident involving an Afghan asylum seeker committing a deadly attack on children with a knife. He also proposed granting the federal police the authority to request arrest warrants for individuals apprehended in Germany without legal status. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens oppose these initiatives.
Merz, the frontrunner for the German chancellorship, has shifted his party's stance on migration towards the right, a move criticized for breaking the taboo of cooperating with the nativist Alternative for Germany (AfD), currently polling second.
Despite the conservatives still being expected to secure the most votes in the upcoming election on Feb. 23, a Forsa poll revealed a three-point decrease to 28% in their support by January 27, while the SPD gained two points to 17%, and the far-right AfD also increased to 21%.
Although some conservative members are discontent with Merz’s proposals, senior party figure Thorsten Frei defended the approach, stating, "We are at a point where we have to depart from tactical considerations. We have to do things that have to be done."
Critics have accused Merz of breaching the taboo on cooperation with AfD, a party under security service monitoring suspected of being right-wing extremist, and supported by U.S. billionaire Elon Musk. Previously, the conservatives had only engaged with AfD at a regional and local level.
Political scientist Stefan Marschall from the University of Duesseldorf explained that Merz’s strategy aims to limit opportunities for the AfD to dominate discussions on migration and asylum policies, maintaining that the risk was that the migration debate could overshadow all other concerns.
Concerns about Merz's credibility and dependability have been raised by other parties due to his recent maneuvers. In the past, Merz assured mainstream parties in November that no proposals requiring AfD support would be presented to the Bundestag lower house.
Katharina Droege, a senior Greens lawmaker, criticized Merz, stating, "Friedrich Merz is simply breaking his word."