The national leadership of the Christian Democratic Union will not permit its Saxony-Anhalt branch to independently pursue a coalition with the Alternative for Germany after upcoming state elections, CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei told the Funke media group.
The ban on cooperation with the AfD is a fundamental party resolution that "cannot be answered differently depending on the state," Frei said. The domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt as a confirmed far-right extremist movement, and the party leads the CDU by a wide margin in opinion polls ahead of September elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Berlin.
The CDU currently governs Saxony-Anhalt under Premier Sven Schulze in a coalition with the SPD and FDP. Frei also affirmed that Chancellor Friedrich Merz will serve the full legislative term, and noted the September state votes would affect governance in Berlin.