A CDU mayor breaks ranks for the AfD, and Merz faces the fallout

A local mayor from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's own CDU, Bernd Prange, donated 10,000 euros to the far-right AfD and publicly urged voters to back it in Saxony-Anhalt's state election in September. Merz's party has ruled out any deal with the AfD as part of the so-called firewall against the far right, but the party polls around 40 percent in the state. Prange's open letter, calling for Merz's removal, shows how thin that firewall has become at the local level.

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