Critics have accused Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, of adopting “dangerous” rhetoric on immigration, after he championed “very large scale” expulsions of people from cities – and claimed that anyone with daughters would agree with him.
Merz, who took office in May with a pledge to beat back the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, chastised a reporter who asked if he wished to revise his hardline remarks on migration from last week in light of widespread criticism, or apologise for them.
“I don’t know if you have children, and daughters among them,” Merz said to the journalist on Monday. “Ask your daughters, I suspect you’ll get a pretty loud and clear answer. I have nothing to take back; to the contrary I stress: we have to change something.”
Members of Merz’s own ruling coalition on Tuesday joined the left-leaning opposition in accusing him of taking a page from extremist parties, whose claims that women and girls are being targeted by migrants with sexual violence have become a global far-right rallying cry.
Dennis Radtke, a senior member of Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), denounced his rhetoric as unsuitable for the country’s leader. “Friedrich Merz is no longer the witty commentator on the sidelines shooting from the hip,” said Radtke, an MEP and head of his party’s labour affairs wing.
“As chancellor he has a special responsibility for the cohesion of our society, the culture of debate and a positive narrative for the future.”
Ricarda Lang, a high-profile Greens MP, said Merz’s message for young women was patronising and failed to recognise their actual political concerns.
“Perhaps ‘the daughters’ are also fed up with Friedrich Merz only caring about their rights and safety when he can use them to justify his completely backward-looking policies?” she posted on X.
Merz, said his priority was “security in public space” and stressed that only if it could be guaranteed “will the [mainstream] political parties win back trust”.
He had drawn flak last week for remarks that critics said hinted that diversity itself was a problem in German cities: “Of course we still have this problem in the cityscape, and that is why the federal interior minister is now working to enable and carry out expulsions on a very large scale,” Merz said on a visit to Brandenburg state outside Berlin.
Clemens Rostock, the leader of the Greens in Brandenburg, accused Merz of stoking racial prejudice with his comment, which drew small protests in several German cities at the weekend.
“It’s dangerous when ruling parties try to label people as a problem based on their appearance or origin,” Rostock said.
Natalie Pawlik of the Social Democrats, junior partners in Merz’s government, said: “Migration must not be stigmatised with simplistic or populist kneejerk reactions – this divides society even further and ultimately helps the wrong people instead of promoting solutions.”
The conservative leader’s CDU/CSU bloc turned in a disappointing 28.5% result in the February general election against the anti-migrant, anti-Islam AfD with its record 20.8%.
Since then, the far right has pulled level with the CDU/CSU, even overtaking it in some polls, amid voter fears around immigration, crime and economic stagnation.
Merz rose to the top of his party pledging a tougher line on migration than the longtime CDU chancellor Angela Merkel, rejecting her “we can do it” slogan from the refugee influx a decade ago and giving her part of the blame for the AfD’s strength.
Before becoming chancellor, he fostered an at times more populist tone than Merkel, notoriously blaming “little pashas” for recurrent vandalism on New Year’s Eve and asylum seekers for filling up dentist appointments at the expense of German citizens.
Merz’s Christian Democrats met on Sunday and Monday to hash out a strategy ahead of five state elections next year. The AfD holds strong leads in two eastern regions, flirting with a record 40% support.
Merz insisted that his party was united in barring cooperation in government with the AfD, a policy widely known as the “firewall”.
However, the recent poll data has spooked some Christian Democrats, leading a handful of party officials and advisers to suggest in recent weeks that the firewall could be untenable and counterproductive in the long run.
The dissenters argue that as long as the 12-year-old AfD, which domestic security authorities have labelled rightwing extremist, is able to snipe from the margins without having to make the difficult decisions governing requires, it will profit from the incumbent deficit afflicting many western democracies.
Researchers in Germany recently found mainstream parties such as the CDU were increasingly allowing the far right to set the agenda, unwittingly legitimising their ideas and disseminating them further.
While Merz resisted using the word “firewall” on Monday, he insisted there were “fundamental differences” with the AfD which would make cooperation impossible.
“We accept this challenge,” he said. “We will now also make it very clear and very explicit what the AfD stands for. We will distance ourselves very clearly and very explicitly from them. Above all, it is important that we counter this with successful work in government.”
He said this would mean pulling the economy out of the doldrums with pro-growth policies while remaining within the bounds of the constitution in curbing illegal migration.
The AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, who has cited US president Donald Trump’s Maga movement as a role model and met vice-president JD Vance, taunted Merz’s renewed rebuff, saying it would only fuel her party’s support.
“Merz and his functionaries keep walling themselves in,” she posted on X. “They’re fighting against the AfD, we’re fighting for Germany.”
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