German CDU leader says ‘firewall’ against far right will hold firm

Armin Laschet, who hopes to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, rules out cooperation with AfD

Armin Laschet, the leader of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and her potential successor as chancellor, has insisted his party's firewall" against the far right will remain intact, as the CDU braces itself for a strong performance by the nationalist Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) in Sunday's state elections in Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD, which first entered the German parliament in 2017, is stagnant on about 11% of the vote in polls for the national vote in September, but has shored up its influential positions in several states of the formerly socialist east.