The man tipped to be Germany’s next leader could rely on support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for the second time in a week, a move that has been widely condemned.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the conservative CDU party, may need AfD votes to pass legislation toughening immigration laws.
Former chancellor Angela Merkel has accused him of turning his back on a previous pledge not to work with AfD in the Bundestag.
Merz has defended his actions as “necessary” and said that he had not sought nor wanted AfD’s support.
“A right decision doesn’t become wrong just because the wrong people agree to it,” he said.
As Friday’s proceedings went on, party leaders frantically tried to get MPs onside, with Merz facing a rebellion from centrists in his party.
The CDU leader has been hoping that a tougher stance on migration will win voters from the AfD. But his reliance on that party for this vote risks losing more moderate voters.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Germany on Thursday night in opposition to the CDU’s cooperation with the far-right.
The CDU is leading in the polls ahead of Germany’s snap election next month. The AfD is currently polling in second place, although Merz has ruled out any kind of coalition with them.
While Wednesday’s vote saw a non-binding motion over changes to immigration law pass through parliament, actual legislation will be tabled on Friday aimed at curbing immigration numbers and family reunion rights.
However, his proposed measures are highly unlikely to come into effect this side of February’s snap election and – if they did – could clash with EU law.
The proposed legislation is opposed by parties including current Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD). Scholz is among those to have criticised Merz’s reliance on the AfD, calling it an “unforgivable mistake”.
“Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany over 75 years ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats in our parliaments: we do not make common cause with the far right,” he said.
In her rare intervention in politics, Merkel said he was breaking a pledge made in November to work with the Social Democratic Party and the Greens to pass legislation, not the AfD. She described the pledge as an “expression of great state political responsibility”.
Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, meanwhile, accused mainstream parties on Wednesday of disrespecting German voters by refusing to work with her party.
Sections of the AfD have been classed as right-wing extremists by domestic intelligence.
Wednesday’s vote saw Germany’s already fraught debate on immigration has flared up following a series of fatal attacks where the suspect is an asylum-seeker, most recently in the city of Aschaffenburg.
It has become a central issue in campaigning for the election, which was triggered by the collapse of Scholz’s governing coalition.
