Merz announces plans to backtrack on climate action
Kate Connolly
Friedrich Merz is laying into the AfD, sitting in flamboyant, fiery and rambunctious mode to his right hand side, repeating with a jab of his finger in his direction, his pledge that he would, as chancellor, never work together with the party.
This will come as a relief to those who have sometimes feared there was a crack in the firewall that CDU members and other mainstream parties have erected in insisting there will be no cooperation with the far-right populists.
Merz in almost the same breath, lays into Scholz, saying that Germany needs a “completely different type of politics”, that this is “urgently needed”.
He announces, like a quick fire shopping list, his plans to backtrack on the government’s climate policies, to tackle immigration control, to boost Germany’s status as a modern transport hub, its digital standards.
He accuses Scholz of only now reaching out for cooperation from the CDU/CSU, at a time when it wants to bring its government to a more graceful close, but says he will not play ball.
He says cooperation can only take place once Scholz has faced the vote of confidence in parliament – on December 16.
He again makes a dig at the AfD, angrily asking: “Is that all you’re capable of? Screaming at us from the sidelines?”
Key events
Summary
After a lively, sometimes rowdy, German Bundestag debate, this is what we learnt:
-
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will ask for a vote of confidence on 16 December, paving the way forward for an early parliamentary election in February.
-
Striking an unusually fiery tone, Scholz said he was right to fire Christian Lindner as his finance minister last week, triggering the collapse of his three-party coalition and early elections.
-
The German chancellor urged all parties to pass outstanding bills on child benefit and fiscal drag. He also called for greater protection of the German Constitutional court, which mainstream parties fear could be damaged, if the far-right and far-left make gains in the elections and seek to block appointments to the court.
-
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who polls suggest will become Germany’s next chancellor, denounced Scholz’s record. He also pledged to backtrack Germany’s climate policies and expel migrants at the border as part of a “totally different” approach to migration.
-
Earlier in the day, Merz indicated openness to reform of Germany’s debt brake, strict spending limits enshrined in the constitution that ultimately tore apart the outgoing coalition. It could be a significant step from a fiscal hawk, but we don’t know yet what he has in mind.
-
In her contribution Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock was forced on the defensive after her Green co-leader Robert Habeck had to miss the debate because a broken-down government plane kept him grounded in Lisbon.
-
Ousted finance minister Christian Lindner defended his approach to the debt brake, the issue that broke the government apart.
-
Far-right leader Alice Weidel lambasted the government and opposition in an angry speech, where she outlined her policies of deporting all undocumented migrants in Germany, reversing the planned ban on combustion engines and continuing to burn coal.
This brings an end to our live coverage. Thank you for following today and don’t forget to check out all our coverage of Germany.
The leader of the far right Alternative für Deutschland party Alice Weidel has given an angry speech, spitting in rage and frustration at both Olaf Scholz’s government and the opposition conservatives, who she said had collaborated as architects in the downfall of Germany.
She pledged a 100 day plan, should the AfD get into government which would overturn the main policies introduced by Scholz’s government. The most headline making of them, is her pledge to immediately instigate a mass deportation of all undocumented migrants in Germany, in what commentators have compared to the policies Donald Trump is expected to enact when he enters office.
Weidel also pledged the reinstatement of Germany’s defunct nuclear power stations, the continued use of its coal fired power plants, a reversal of the planned ban on combustion engines, an overturn of gender policies and a controlled use of cannabis, among other u-turn promises.
She described Scholz’s government as “headless” and “lacking in dignity” and accused it of failing to demonstrate an ounce of humility to accept it had driven Germany into the economic turmoil it finds itself in.
The AfD leader described Merz as a potential “ersatz Scholz” and no alternative to the current government, saying he and his colleagues had been among the main authors of the chaos Germany found itself in now.
The CDU’s “mother of sins”, she said, had been allowing millions of refugees into the country, under the 16 year leadership of Angela Merkel. She described this “flood” of people as having consisted of largely criminal, lazy newcomers, who were a burden to ordinary Germans, robbing them of their chance of prosperity and safety. She referred to Merkel, as “the best chancellor the Greens ever had,” a dig at Merkel’s sympathy for environmental concerns.
Leaning into the podium from which she spoke, digging her heels into the floor, as she moved forwards and backwards, Weidel’s angry shouts were met with applause and cries of support from her fellow party members.
She said Germans “just want normality and they have a right to that”, but they would only get this if the AfD was – as the second most popular party in the Bundestag – allowed to participate in a government, something which all mainstream parties have ruled out.
The debate continues in the Bundestag, but it is unlikely to get a more provocative speech than that delivered by Weidel. Once again, is a foretaste of the election campaign to come over the coming months.
Kate Connolly
Germany’s ousted finance minister, Christian Lindner, leader of the pro-business FDP, which departed the government last Wednesday, has just taken to the podium delivering a speech which was received with stormy applause from his own ranks, and enthusiastically by the conservatives.
Referring to his sacking by Scholz, Lindner said: “Sometimes being relieved of something is freeing”.
He says the government of Scholz has collapsed because the chancellor is treating Germany as if it were a completely different country to the reality as Lindner sees it. Scholz does not appear to be listening, instead, demonstratively turns to talk to his ministers Wolfgang Schmidt and Boris Pistorius, who are sitting behind him. Lindner offers the extra dig at Scholz: “If you only go round in a circle, you can’t expect to lead a coalition of progress”.
He vehemently defends his course to protect the mechanisms of the German debt brake in the constitution – the row over which led to the collapse of the government.
He leaves the podium to rousing applause, returning to his seat next to Merz, in whose government he might get a position, again as finance minister, if his FDP manages to poll above the 5% mark, the threshold needed to get into parliament. Currently it is hovering around or below that crucial figure.
Kate Connolly
Annalena Baerbock of the Greens, and Germany’s foreign minister, has stepped in for her colleague Robert Habeck, economy minister and deputy chancellor, who, embarrassingly and inconveniently at such a historic moment, is stuck in Lisbon due to his government plane breaking down.
Baerbock takes the bull by the horns on this one, knowing that the government is going to get a lot of stick for this. A member of the AfD shouts the question: “why didn’t he take a cargo bike?” in a dig at the Greens’ push for car and plane-free mobility. Baerbock scoffs at this and suggests they can now save themselves from using this as an election slogan.
Baerbock stresses again the government’s support for Ukraine, and says as the world gets more complicated, with drone attacks on Ukraine likely to get heftier over Christmas, and Putin caring not a jot about the German election results, Germany has to continue to recognise the particular responsibility it has in the times ahead, to contribute to international security.
She says if asked by her kids in 10 years time, what Germany did, and did Europe act collaboratively, she wanted to say it had acted responsibly and helped to strengthen security.
The new US administration would not make life easier, she said, at the same time as stressing that it was a choice of US voters that had to be respected. Germany’s answer had to be to work in a spirit of cooperation with other countries, she said.
“Our answer to America First cannot be Germany First, as some here have suggested,” she said. “But Europe United – with a strong Germany.”
Kate Connolly
Merz accused Scholz of dividing Germany, in contrast to what Scholz himself has just stated – the desire he has to stop a US-style polarisation of the country – and of having lost touch with reality.
The opposition leader complained of artificial intelligence generated images of himself doing the rounds on social media, although he doesn’t go into detail. He said the fact that they are being distributed online by members of Scholz’s SPD is an indication, of “foretaste of the type of election campaign” to come, accusing the SPD of being prepared to strike below the belt. Scholz, donning black spectacles, peers at his mobile phone and doesn’t react to the accusation.
Merz’s speech is met by rousing applause from the benches of his conservatives.
Merz received warm and sustained applause after his speech.
Now up is Green party co-leader and German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock.
Merz calls for totally different approach to migration
Friedrich Merz has said Germany needs a totally different approach to migration policy.
He said a new government must regain control over migration with expulsions at the border.
It is a handbrake turn on the approach of his predecessor Angela Merkel, whose open-door to Syrian refugees in 2015 contributed to more than a million asylum seekers arriving in the EU that year.
Merz announces plans to backtrack on climate action
Kate Connolly
Friedrich Merz is laying into the AfD, sitting in flamboyant, fiery and rambunctious mode to his right hand side, repeating with a jab of his finger in his direction, his pledge that he would, as chancellor, never work together with the party.
This will come as a relief to those who have sometimes feared there was a crack in the firewall that CDU members and other mainstream parties have erected in insisting there will be no cooperation with the far-right populists.
Merz in almost the same breath, lays into Scholz, saying that Germany needs a “completely different type of politics”, that this is “urgently needed”.
He announces, like a quick fire shopping list, his plans to backtrack on the government’s climate policies, to tackle immigration control, to boost Germany’s status as a modern transport hub, its digital standards.
He accuses Scholz of only now reaching out for cooperation from the CDU/CSU, at a time when it wants to bring its government to a more graceful close, but says he will not play ball.
He says cooperation can only take place once Scholz has faced the vote of confidence in parliament – on December 16.
He again makes a dig at the AfD, angrily asking: “Is that all you’re capable of? Screaming at us from the sidelines?”
Opposition leader Merz says Scholz ‘from another cosmos’
Kate Connolly
Friedrich Merz, chancellor in waiting, takes to the podium, and it’s clear from the start that he is trying to separate himself from Scholz as much as possible, even as Scholz called on him to help his government to push through outstanding legislation which was for the good of the nation.
Merz slapped Scholz down saying he was “not from this world”, but “from another cosmos”. He criticised his behaviour in the run up to his government’s collapse. Merz, a lawyer and investment banker who has been waiting for this moment his whole political career, is presenting himself as the diametrical opposite of Scholz, in what is effectively the opening salvo of what is going to be a heated election campaign.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democrats, is now speaking and getting a warm reception from some in the chamber.
He was officially nominated as his party’s candidate in September, putting him in poll position to be Germany’s next chancellor.
A former BlackRock executive, he is a fiscal conservative, who is seen as impulsive even by his allies.
