{"id":2406178,"date":"2025-02-24T18:46:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T23:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cdu-warns-five-minutes-to-midnight-for-german-centrists\/"},"modified":"2025-02-24T18:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T23:49:08","slug":"cdu-warns-five-minutes-to-midnight-for-german-centrists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cdu-warns-five-minutes-to-midnight-for-german-centrists\/","title":{"rendered":"CDU warns &#8216;five minutes to midnight&#8217; for German centrists"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcdu-warns-five-minutes-to-midnight-for-german-centrists%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2406178&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/finland-and-sweden-elevate-talks-on-joint-nato-application\/\" title=\"Finland and Sweden Elevate Talks on Joint NATO ...plication\">recent parliamentary elections<\/a> in\u2062 Germany, where the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) \u200dand its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social \u200cUnion, secured a victory with 28.5% of the vote.However,this \u2063result is viewed as a disappointing \u200coutcome,especially \u2063considering the \u2063significant rise of the right-wing Choice for Germany (AfD),which received 20.8% of \u2063the vote, nearly doubling its \u200dsupport\u2062 from the previous\u2064 election. <\/p>\n<p>CDU leader Friedrich Merz expressed concern\u200c over the election results,\u2063 labeling them a &#8220;final warning&#8221; for \u2063Germany&#8217;s moderate\u200c political landscape. He further emphasized the need for collaboration among center parties to address \u200dthe surge of support for fringe parties, such as the AfD and The Left, which also saw \u200dincreased backing. <\/p>\n<p>The CDU will \u200dlikely need to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, who garnered 16.4%, while a partnership \u200bwith the Green Party is\u2063 deemed insufficient to meet \u200dthe majority requirement to\u2063 govern. Merz has ruled \u2063out a coalition with the AfD, maintaining a political barrier against far-right\u2064 alliances. The outcome has highlighted a growing divide in\u2063 German politics, prompting calls for the establishment parties to better respond to voter concerns \u200cand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-jersey-and-virginia-set-to-open-barn-burner-governors-race-season-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"New Jersey and Virginia set to open barn-burner governor\u2019s race season - Washington Examiner\">shifting political \u200ddynamics<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">&lsquo;Five minutes to midnight&rsquo; for German centrists, CDU warns as it seeks coalition<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2016904\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Officials warn that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3327754\/conservative-opposition-wins-german-election-afd-in-second-with-strongest-postwar-result\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Germany&rsquo;s parliamentary elections<\/a> on Sunday might be the last gasp of normalcy in the Bundenstag if establishment parties don&rsquo;t fulfill voters&rsquo; expectations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The center-right <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3325924\/cdu-promises-germans-stable-solutions-immigration-terrorism-defense-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Christian Democratic Union<\/a> and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, won the Feb. 23 election with 28.5%. It&rsquo;s an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3327782\/cdu-limited-options-forming-government-by-shutting-out-alternative-for-germany\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">uncomfortably lackluster victory<\/a> in a country that is reaching a conservative high water mark.<\/p>\n<p>The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, a right-wing party that accuses the CDU of being just as feckless as its left-wing Social Democratic Party rivals, came in second place with 20.8%. The party almost doubled its support compared to the last election.<\/p>\n<p>CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the next chancellor of Germany, has been far from celebratory following his party&rsquo;s win, lamenting that the results are a &ldquo;final warning&rdquo; for the Bundestag&rsquo;s moderate establishment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, leaves a news conference at the headquarters of the Christian Democratic Union party in Berlin, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo\/Martin Meissner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Merz called the AfD&rsquo;s massive expansion a &ldquo;real warning bell, a real alarm bell for the political parties of the center in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/germany\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Germany<\/a> to come up with shared solutions.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The center-right party will be forced to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, who collected just 16.4% of the electorate. A deal with the Green Party&rsquo;s mere 11.6% would not push the CDU over the 50% threshold to form a government, meaning it would not be a viable alternative.<\/p>\n<p>The Free Democracy Party and the B&uuml;ndnis Sahra Wagenknecht both failed to reach 5%, knocking them out of parliament entirely.<\/p>\n<p>The most progressive party in German politics, known simply as The Left, is far less popular than AfD but pulled a surprise 8% turnout &mdash; also coming close to doubling it 4.9% results from 2021.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3327030\/afd-and-antifa-both-want-nazis-out-in-berlin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">AfD and The Left&rsquo;s gains<\/a> are creating a pincer effect on the center. The CDU and SPD are traditionally seen as bickering rivals, but the flight of voters to the peripheries is going to necessitate consistent collaboration.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Friedrich Merz must brace himself now,&rdquo; warned Jan van Aken, one the leaders of The Left.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From left, Ines Schwerdtner, co-leader of The Left party, top candidate Heidi Reichinnek and Jan van Aken, co-leader of The Left party react during the party&rsquo;s election party in Berlin, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (Carsten Koall\/dpa via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>No one is expecting the CDU to find help from its rightward counterparts &mdash; Merz vowed during a debate last week that he would not entertain the idea of forming a coalition with the AfD.<\/p>\n<p>His party actually has no intention of working with the AfD at all, affirming that it will maintain the long-standing &ldquo;firewall&rdquo; in German politics that <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">discourages voting alongside parties deemed<\/a> too &ldquo;far-right.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>AfD supporters are suffering mixed feelings with their second-place position. The most optimistic outcome for the party would have been hitting 25% &mdash; a threshold that would allow them to unilaterally vote for official inquiries into government affairs.<\/p>\n<p>One-fifth of the electorate means nothing for their ability to enact change, but leadership still celebrated the outcome as a symbolic victory with potential to flip the table next election. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We doubled our results in three years and took a major milestone yesterday!&rdquo; AfD leader Alice Weidel wrote Monday on social media. &ldquo;Our goal is to become the strongest party in Germany!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>AfD supporters were enraptured by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3321696\/marco-rubio-defends-jd-vance-lecture-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Vice President JD Vance&rsquo;s address<\/a> to the German government in Munich earlier this month in which he encouraged establishment parties to end the &ldquo;firewall&rdquo; and listen to the public&rsquo;s concerns.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Leader of far-right AfD Alice Weidel waves a German flag at the AfD party headquarters in Berlin, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, after the German national election. (AP Photo\/Michael Probst)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What no democracy &mdash; American, German, or European &mdash; will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered,&rdquo; Vance said. &ldquo;Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There&rsquo;s no room for &lsquo;firewalls.&rsquo; You either uphold the principle or you don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Olaf Scholz, the outgoing SDP chancellor, dismissed the speech as inappropriate and criticized the vice president for instructing the German government how to manage its own parliament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2016904\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2016904\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CDU warns of &#8216;five minutes to midnight&#8217; for German centrists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3468,"featured_media":2406179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AP25055486934933.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[50863,26422,34541,51007,38621],"class_list":["post-2406178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cdu","tag-centrism","tag-election-strategy","tag-german-politics","tag-political-warning"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AP25055486934933.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2406178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2406182,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406178\/revisions\/2406182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2406179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2406178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2406178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2406178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}