Yesterday's vote in the Bundestag has crossed a dangerous border. The CDU knowingly enabled a majority with the votes of the AfD – a break with the previous democratic consensus. The fact that this dam collapse occurred two days after the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and on the day of the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism in the German Bundestag makes it all the more shocking.

Yesterday's vote in the Bundestag marks a worrying turning point. A democratic party must not knowingly become dependent on the AfD in order to secure majorities – this contradicts the previous political consensus in Germany.

The CDU has crossed a red line. Anyone who enforces political projects with the votes of the AfD promotes their normalization. The fact that this happens immediately after the central commemorations commemorating the crimes of National Socialism is more than a political signal – it is a dangerous forgetting of history.

Such cooperation between the CDU and the AfD has not yet existed in Wiesbaden. The renunciation of classically conservative politics at the federal level has been evident since the time when Friedrich Merz became party leader of the CDU.

The leadership of the CDU and CSU is increasingly following right-wing and populist narratives. Due to the increasingly substantive approach to the AfD, it normalizes its ideas. Such cooperation, as we have seen from the CDU with the AfD on Wednesday and will probably also see on Friday, endangers our democracy in the long term.

That is why we call on the Wiesbaden CDU to take a critical look at the policies of its federal leadership and to distance itself from right-wing and populist tendencies within the Union. The democratic parties are responsible for refusing to cooperate with right-wing extremists.

Therefore, together with the other parties of the Wiesbaden cooperation as well as many actors from civil society, we call for the demonstration:

"We are the firewall" - Demo and sea of lights - For democracy and against the shift to the right
31 January 2025 ⁇ 18:00 ⁇ Dern’sches Gelände, Wiesbaden