CDU parliamentary group leader Kupfer calls for talks with AfD

From the perspective of its former parliamentary group leader Frank Kupfer, the CDU should at least talk to the AfD after the state elections. "30 percent of voters voted AfD. And you can't just put these people in a corner, you have to talk to them," the former Minister of Agriculture told the Sächsische Zeitung newspaper. He was not interested in coalitions, but in talks. They could be over after an hour, but then at least they had tried.

He had not yet received a response from the CDU state executive to the open letter that he had signed together with other CDU members, which also called for talks with the AfD. However, Kupfer went on to say that the letter had stimulated discussions within the party.

The fact that the AfD has been classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is not reason enough for him not to talk to them, he continued. "The party has been elected." On the other hand, he was highly critical of the CDU's current talks with the BSW. "For me, the BSW is pure communism." He personally would not form a coalition with the BSW. But if it came to that, he would not leave the CDU.