End of the Brandmauer, Part II

Has the time come for the CDU to start talking to the AfD?

A debate has flared up inside the CDU over whether the centre-right party needs to reconsider its current policy of boycotting all forms of cooperation with the AfD.

Up until now, the CDU and its sister party, Bavaria’s CSU, have ruled out coalitions with their hard-right competitor. A resolution passed by the CDU at their 2018 party conference even put this into writing — it states that the party “rejects any coalitions or similar forms of cooperation with the AfD.”

This boycott, colloquially referred to as the Brandmauer (“firewall”), is aimed at keeping the AfD out of power at all costs. It is also a strategy shaped by the rise of the AfD itself: the calculation has long been that, by making clear the party stands no chance of entering government, voters might be discouraged from “wasting” their ballots on it.

That hasn’t happened. The Brandmauer has been in place for a decade, yet the AfD keeps getting stronger. In national polling, they have been level with or ahead of the CDU on ar…