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The man who is favored to be Germany\u2019s next chancellor has opened the door to working with the Alternative for Germany to pass tough new immigration restrictions, potentially breaking a longstanding effort to shun a party whose flirtation with Nazi language has made it anathema to the political mainstream.<\/p>\n
The opening by Friedrich Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats, who leads in the polls for the chancellor election next month, came after a knife attack last week in Bavaria by a mentally ill Afghan immigrant that killed two people, including a toddler.<\/p>\n
The attack, the latest in a string of high-profile killings carried out by immigrants, has since upended Germany\u2019s parliamentary election, set for Feb. 23, refocusing what had been an economy-themed campaign toward the contentious issue of migration.<\/p>\n
Mr. Merz is trying to show voters that he and his party are serious about tightening Germany\u2019s borders and following through on deportations of migrants whom authorities have determined should leave the country. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But until now, all parties at the national level had built what is colloquially known as a \u201cfirewall\u201d around the AfD, hoping to blunt the party\u2019s move into the mainstream.<\/p>\n
The AfD is currently running second in polls before the election, sitting comfortably ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s Social Democrats, though well behind Mr. Merz\u2019s Christian Democrats. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Migration concerns have risen in Germany, where millions of refugees and other migrants have arrived in the last decade, largely from Syria and Ukraine. The AfD has made promises of border crackdowns and deportations of some migrants a centerpiece of its pitch to voters.<\/p>\n
Other parties, including the CDU and Social Democrats, have promised new migration restrictions, particularly after a Syrian immigrant killed three people last summer in a stabbing attack in the city of Solingen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But until last week, those mainstream parties had campaigned more heavily on promised fixes to Germany\u2019s stagnating economy than on migration policy. The Bavarian attacks changed that script.<\/p>\n Mr. Merz has pushed in recent days to force a vote in Parliament over migration legislation. The plan would bring permanent border patrols, would stop anyone from entering the country without legal papers and place in custody all migrants who have been ordered to leave the country.<\/p>\n The legislation could pass on the strength of votes from the AfD, forming a partnership that mainstream German political parties have long treated as taboo, and drawing fierce criticism from other mainstream political leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cFriedrich Merz is willing to make common cause with the AfD,\u201d Lars Klingbeil, the co-leader of Mr. Scholz\u2019 Social Democratic party, told the Rheinische Post<\/a>, a regional daily newspaper. \u201cIn doing so, he is abandoning the CDU\u2019s previous principles in its dealings with the AfD, splitting the democratic center of our country and alienating our European partners,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Merz defended his plan to support the restrictions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is right in principle is not made wrong by the fact that the wrong people vote for it,\u201d he said Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The 28-year-old Afghan immigrant, whom German media outlets have identified as Enamullah O., attacked and killed a two-year-old Moroccan boy with a large kitchen knife. The boy and his friends, as well as their minders, were on a preschool outing in the park in Aschaffenburg, a quaint town in the state of Bavaria, close to Frankfurt. A bystander who attempted to stop the attacker was also killed. One of the teachers and a 61-year-old man were hurt. <\/p>\n The man suspected in the attack, who lived in asylum housing nearby, has been remanded to a closed psychiatric ward, authorities have said. <\/p>\n The seemingly random killings galvanized the country in ways similar to other attacks last year. Last May, a refugee from Afghanistan attacked a far-right demonstration, injuring five and killing a police officer. In December, a man who had immigrated from Saudi Arabia decades earlier drove into a Christmas market, killing 5 and injuring hundreds.<\/p>\n Some officials urged caution in response. J\u00fcrgen Herzing, the mayor of Aschaffenburg, a town of nearly 80,000 inhabitants, warned that despite \u201cparallels\u201d with other recent attacks, people should refrain from acts of revenge. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe cannot and must not blame an entire population group for the actions of an individual,\u201d Mr. Herzing said.<\/p>\n But political leaders were swift to call for action, most notably those with the AfD.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Aschaffenburg knife murders must lead to a change in asylum policy: dangerous asylum seekers are to be deported,\u201d Tino Chrupalla, one of the two party leaders of the AfD, wrote in a post on social media just hours after the news broke. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Scholz issued a statement calling the killing an \u201cunfathomable act of terror.\u201d But he stopped short of visiting the site of the crime, as he did after other similar attacks.<\/p>\n A version of the bill that Mr. Merz is expected to bring to Parliament contains a paragraph criticizing the AfD for seizing on problems associated with \u201cmassive illegal migration\u201d to promote xenophobia. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But despite earlier assurances that under his watch his Christian Democratic Party would never rely on the AfD for votes, Mr. Merz did not rule out doing so in this case. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t look to the right or the left. I just look straight ahead on these issues,\u201d he said last week.<\/p>\n The AfD celebrated Mr. Merz\u2019s announcement, implying that the legislation is little more than a copy of what the AfD has demanded.<\/p>\n \u201cThe firewall has fallen! The CDU and CSU have accepted my offer to vote together with the AfD in the Bundestag on the crucial issue of migration,\u201d Ms. Weidel wrote in a post on X<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is good news for our country!\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n