Dealing with the AfD: Kretschmer and Amthor stand by Spahn

Union parliamentary group deputy leader Jens Spahn (CDU) has received support from his party for his proposal to deal with the AfD on organizational issues in the Bundestag in the same way as other opposition parties. Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer said on ZDF's "Morgenmagazin": "The AfD is an extreme right-wing party, it wants to abolish democracy." There can be no cooperation or coalition with them. The AfD must be confronted with issues. However, the actual democratic rights for every member of parliament should also apply to this party, "because otherwise you make them stronger, not weaker."

Spahn had suggested in the newspaper "Bild" that the AfD should be treated like any other opposition party in terms of parliamentary procedures, procedures in the rules of procedure, in the committees and the consideration of minority and majority rights.

The CDU politician Philipp Amthor also defended Spahn against criticism. Spahn was "clearly not trying to trivialize the AfD", but rather "to make the justified point that it would be better to push this party back through a passionate and substantive debate rather than through parliamentary tricks", the CDU member of parliament from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.