Germany's CDU opens two-day leadership retreat amid deepening internal divisions over AfD strategy

Election defeats, stalled reform efforts, a crumbling firewall: the CDU is spending two days discussing how to deal with the AfD — and with itself.

11 October 2026, 19:45

Shooting from Brussels: Manfred Weber, head of the EPP group in the EU Parliament, wants to bring down the firewall. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

By Amelie Sittenauer

At a two-day presidency retreat beginning Sunday, the CDU leadership intends to come to terms with the catastrophic election results of the recent state elections. But even before it begins, an open dispute over the party's direction toward the AfD has erupted. Manfred Weber, leader of the European People's Party group in the European Parliament, openly called for an end to the firewall on Friday: "The firewall in the sense of 'them or us' must become history," he said in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung.

"It is a permanent enormous burden for us as the Union when, in the state parliaments where we have minority governments — Thuringia and Saxony — we constantly vote with left-wing parties and thereby make even more left-wing policy," Weber said in the SZ interview. At the same time, he described the AfD as a "political enemy." Regarding Saxony-Anhalt, Weber said the CDU must move away from a pure discussion of rejection. "If we actually talk about substance for once, we will disenchant the AfD."

Whether such a disenchantment would work has so far proven unsuccessful in any case. While the AfD became the strongest force in both federal states, the CDU was voted out of the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and in Saxony-Anhalt the former governing party won only 17 percent. Then last Tuesday, presumed CDU state parliament members in Saxony-Anhalt voted for Germany's first AfD state parliament president, Thomas Rausch, and for the far-right Hans-Thomas Tillschneider as AfD state parliament vice president. Add to this falling poll numbers and stalled reform efforts at the federal level.

Discontent within the party is great. In the struggle over the right course out of the crisis, the embattled party leader and Chancellor Friedrich Merz now finds himself facing various camps within the CDU. The Christian-social wing has long complained about the dominance of economic liberals in the Merz CDU. It demands adherence to the firewall and a more socially oriented course for the Union. A conservative part of the party, by contrast, wants more conservative policy and "red lines" instead of firewalls. A debate with the potential to tear the party apart.

CDU deputy leader and Federal Family Minister Karin Prien, from the party's liberal wing, warned against this. The CDU has a very clear resolution that categorically excludes cooperation with the AfD and the Left, and everyone will have to adhere to it, she told Bayerischer Rundfunk. "Otherwise the CDU, the Union in this form, will not exist in the long term," Prien said. Parliamentary group deputy leader Günther Krings told Welt am Sonntag that he considered the thesis bold that the AfD would not be able to grow without the CDU's incompatibility resolution.

"Red Lines" Instead of a Firewall

Guido Heuer sees things differently. Instead of the firewall, the state parliament member from Saxony-Anhalt would rather define red lines: "With the firewall, we have walled ourselves in, but behind it the fire continues to burn," he told Welt am Sonntag. However, he considers coalitions with the AfD or the Left out of the question.

From the CSU, meanwhile, not only Weber but also Horst Seehofer spoke up. The former Bavarian minister-president and federal interior minister sharply criticized the federal government and the chancellor. "Friedrich Merz has suffered a massive loss of credibility by breaking election promises," Seehofer told Bild am Sonntag. Regarding the government's way of working, he demanded a radical turnaround — instead of new commissions, what is needed is conviction and speed: "A politician who plays in the Bundesliga must have convictions himself — for example on care — and on that basis push through solutions in the coalition," Seehofer continued.

Several leading Christian Democrats had also demanded before the presidency meeting that the everyday problems of people and questions of justice be brought more into the party's focus. Given the numerous contentious issues, it remains to be seen whether the CDU can present a unified course at the conclusion of the retreat on Monday.

At the start of the two-day meeting, CDU General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann at least dampened expectations: "Today's retreat is not the one magic weapon, but the beginning of a process," she told the press in a brief statement before disappearing into the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus. (with agencies)