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Friedrich Merz and his Christian Democrats have damaged a political taboo when running with the election of the right so that Germany tightens the immigration regulations. He paid.
By Christopher F. Schuetze and Jim Tankersley
Reports from Berlin
The guy who has been heavily favored to become GerGuyy’s next chancellor made an ordinary bet this week, either for his political career and for his country’s firewall opposed to political extremism.
It did not go as he hoped.
In an effort to paint himself and his party as complicated for immigration, Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democrats in the bosses of voting, promoted a series of measures hardening borders and accelerating deportations to Parliament this week. He did it with the election of the election for the German party, or AFD, of which the parties have been classified as extremists through German intelligence agencies.
On Friday, the gambit ended in a crushing legislative defeat for Mr. Merz, dissent in his own party and jubilant claims of new legitimacy from the AfD, a chain reaction that could rattle Mr. Merz’s comfortable seat at the top of the polls.
Mr Merz’s preference for AFD has damaged a taboo in German politics that had ended since the end of the Second World War.
That left Merz facing fierce complaint from political opponents, devout leaders, Holocaust survivors and former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who remains a member of Merz’s party.
Despite the complaint and several opportunities to step back, Mr. merz to bring an invoice hardening the regulations for migration to the workplace of the prosecutor of the representatives chamber on Friday. Failed.
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