Plan to tighten migration policy was brought by the opposition leader Friedrich Merz with the help of AfD

The German parliament has rejected a bill to tighten immigration controls brought by the frontrunner to be the next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, with the backing of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

It came after a similar but non-binding motion was passed by parliament on Wednesday with the votes of the AfD, prompting a wave of protest from those who said it was a breach in Germany’s longstanding “firewall” between the far right and the mainstream.

Albrecht Weinberg ‘horrified’ that MPs relied on far-right party to pass anti-immigration motion

A 99-year-old Holocaust survivor has said he will return his federal order of merit to the German president in protest over MPs passing an anti-immigration motion in parliament with the support of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

Albrecht Weinberg, whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz, told the Guardian he was “horrified” on learning that a proposal submitted by the conservative parties had relied on the anti-immigrant, xenophobic AfD to get it over the line.

Ex-chancellor makes rare intervention to criticise her own party for passing asylum policy with support of AfD

The former German chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised Friedrich Merz, her eventual successor as leader of the country’s conservatives, for pushing through proposals on migration and asylum with the backing of the far-right AfD party.

In a rare intervention in public affairs since stepping down from politics in December 2021, Merkel said Merz, who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor, had in effect performed a U-turn.

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz accused of breaking longstanding political firewall against far-right populists

The leader of Germany’s conservative opposition has been backed in his controversial plans to restrict migration by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, in what Olaf Scholz branded “an unforgivable mistake.”

Friedrich Merz was accused by Scholz’s minority government of breaking a longstanding political firewall against the far-right populists. He had presented two non-binding motions to parliament, aimed at boosting security measures and closing all of Germany’s land borders to irregular migration.