Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Ten years ago Angela Merkel's open-door policy allowed a million refugees into Germany and fired up anti-immigrant parties across Europe. It was also a prelude to Brexit.
Yesterday, more than three years after leaving power, Merkel made a rare intervention in public life to speak out against her successor as head of Germany's Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, for entering into a de-facto pact with the hard-right Alternative für Deutschland to push a package of migration and asylum reforms through the Bundestag.
Until now all mainstream parties have shunned the AfD. Merkel said it was wrong no longer to feel bound by this “firewall” convention.
Olaf Scholz, the current chancellor, said Merz had made a “tragic mistake”.
The AfD is running second in polls, with three weeks to go till Germany's parliamentary elections on 23 February.
