{"id":197082,"date":"2026-08-21T19:31:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/197082\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:31:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:31:35","slug":"a-german-conservative-mayor-backed-the-afd-now-merz-is-on-the-spot-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/197082\/","title":{"rendered":"A German conservative mayor backed the AfD. Now Merz is on the spot. \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The letter prompted swift criticism from within his own party: \u201cI don\u2019t like it. I can say that very clearly,\u201d Saxony-Anhalt CDU Premier Sven Schulze told POLITICO\u2019s Berlin Playbook Podcast on Thursday<\/a>. \u201cI think his approach is wrong. Definitely,\u201d adding that he did not share Prange\u2019s views \u201cin any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether the mayor will remain a Christian Democrat, Schulze was in no rush to make a call: \u201cWe\u2019ll deal with the issue after the election,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s campaign time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview published earlier on Wednesday, Schulze had dismissed<\/a> speculation about possible defections after the election: \u201cNo, someone switching from the CDU to the AfD will not happen,\u201d he said. And while Prange hasn\u2019t formally changed political allegiance, he said he wants Chancellor Friedrich Merz \u201cremoved\u201d as CDU leader and accused him of running a party that is \u201cgiving up the conservative core of the Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

The episode hits the CDU at a perilous moment, as Merz struggles<\/a> to maintain the country\u2019s \u201cfirewall\u201d against cooperation with the far right while support for the AfD surges across eastern Germany.<\/p>\n

The AfD is polling between 41 and 43 percent<\/a> in Saxony-Anhalt \u2014 almost twice the CDU\u2019s 22 to 24 percent \u2014 putting the far right within striking distance of governing alone. Merz continues to rule out cooperation<\/a> with the AfD, but September\u2019s elections will put that under sustained pressure: Saxony-Anhalt votes on Sept. 6, followed by Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Sept. 20.<\/p>\n

The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network harnesses the resources of the company\u2019s newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces and analysis. It allows journalists \u2014 including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet and Fakt \u2014 to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms: online, print, TV and audio.<\/p>\n

Maximilian Stascheit and Carlotta Diederich contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The letter prompted swift criticism from within his own party: \u201cI don\u2019t like it. I can say that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[1065,1429,233,249,88138,5964,5965,1086,88139],"class_list":["post-197082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-friedrich-merz","tag-elections","tag-far-right","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-global-reporters-network","tag-mayors","tag-playbook","tag-rights","tag-sven-schulze"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117135165777863860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}