Published August 5, 2026
Saxony’s premier, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician Michael Kretschmer, started a firestorm on July 22 when he called for an end to the participation of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), in the Brandmauer (firewall) prohibiting cooperation with the Alternative for Germany (AfD). CDU German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rebuffed his ally’s call, but his continued insistence that the AfD cannot even be spoken with when discussing government shows he remains woefully out of touch with Germany’s conservative voters.
Kretschmer’s statement was clearly prompted by the political reality he and other Christian Democrats face in states in the former East Germany. Kretschmer leads a minority government that survives without AfD support only because of the tacit backing from one of three left-wing parties, two of which (Die Linke and Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, BSW) are lineal descendants of the former East German Communists. Since the September 2024 election, his CDU party has dropped by 11 points in the polls while the AfD has risen by the same amount to a commanding 42 per cent, according to an INSA survey published on May 21.
Kretschmer’s predicament is shared by other CDU leaders in the former East Germany, especially in the two states holding elections on September 6 and September 20. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in Germany’s northeast, where former chancellor Angela Merkel held her Bundestag seat, the AfD leads with 36 per cent with the CDU running a poor fourth on 9 per cent, according to an Infratest dimap poll for public broadcaster NDR published on July 9.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a globally recognized expert on American elections and policy as well as global populism.
