At the end of January, the Center-Restic Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian Associate The Christian Social Union (CSU), the neo-deferry Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Germany (AFD) party, the distant option voted together. For very strict asylum rules, trying a warm debate that is still sub -part.
Prior to the vote, Protestant Church (EKD) and Catholic German Bishop Conference (DBK) wrote a joint letter to all Parliazians in Germany, in which such cooperation was immediately warned. The letter was signed by major data from two sects, which prelets Anne Gidion and Carl Juston.
Gidion and Jüsten are the head of contact offices for the federal politics of their respective churches, which means that their word is carved in Berlin. But his warning was neither consumed by Conservative CDU/CSU block nor FDP.
Has democracy damaged?
Even though the survey suggests that two-thirds of the German population is in favor of tightening the refuge rules, half is against relying on votes from AFD to pass any speeds or laws. There was a lot of displeasure in cooperation between the conservatives and the distant party.
Gidian and Justan were therefore among those who wasted for the fact that the mainstream parliamentary parties agreed after the break-up of the three-way alliance led by the Social Democrats (SPD), that they denied any prominence We do. AFD help.
Two top priests wrote, “We are afraid that if the pledge of this politics is demolished, German democracy will be damaged in a big way.”
Tension, especially between churches and orthodox blocks, is far ahead of the federal elections on 23 February.
CSU President and Bavarian Premier Marcus Soder told the corporate news room Editorial Network Germany)) He believed that the letter of Gidian and Juston was not approved by two churches. Hey said that many bishops and many church members had separated themselves from it. Söder, Himelfa a Protestant, so emphasized: “We accept criticism, but we have to allow our opinion – including me, as a righteous Christian.”
A ‘cardinal error’
What is even more obvious, Claus Halletsake, leader of the CSU Parliamentary Group in the Bavarian State Parliament. “In a democracy, day-to-day political issues are a case for Parliament, not for teachings,” Heer participated in an interview with Dainik Dainik Augsburger allgemeine zeitungO Protestant and Catholic criticized the course taken by Conservative Block candidate Frederick Merz for Chancellor in the upcoming elections, which is a “cardinal error”.
A Catholic, Holtschec told Protestant News Agency EPD When the churches took a side in highly controversial social debates when the churches took a side in highly controversial social debates, they did not have a good feeling. Hey said that he saw the main area of competence to give the main area of churches a Christian foundation to the society.
Protect human dignity
The President of the EKD Council, Bishop Kirsten Fares, defended the fales of churches on issues of migration and democracy, saying that he had a clear stand in these areas.
Fires pointed to a long Christian tradition in CDU and CSU, as reflected by C to “Christian” in his name by C. “The alliance is marked by joint fundamental culprits as the protection of human dignity and protection of creation,” Fires said at a press conference in Berlin.
His comment was inspired by a study on social mood in Germany which was jointly commissioned with social services run by Protestant Church. For study, polling institutions Foisa surveyed 2,000 people in December 2024.
FeHRS described the results, which were released online, as dangerous. “Most people in our country feel a partition. And many people are with their bubbles,” she said.
Freedom of speech in danger?
According to the study, the results of this feeling are very serious. More than half of the rapondets (51%) said that they cannot independently say what they think more without causing anger. About one -third (32%) said that he had distanced away from others on controversial issues or even broke the contact. A look at the so -called anxiety barometer (anxiety barometer) suggests that there is a great fear of more hatred, enmity and social conflicts.
To combat this widespread reduction of communication, the church and its social services want to provide vacancy in their premises for exchange of ideas. The purpose of the meeting places is to provide a chance for people having different opinions widely to listen to each other. Those who sympathize with AFD or vote for the party are fine, Church says.
No complete tolerance for AFD
Fires says that he, however, doubt about the elected interest of AFD, as the party maintains many distant and highly nationalist stands. Both Christian churches already distanced it away from public statements made in 2024.
Fires said at the time, “We are taking joint action of warning to choose right -wing extremist parties including AFD, as they discriminate in minorities and danger democracy.”
So there is a six big platform for dialogue. The first will take place on 17 February in the German city of Hanau, with the presence of Bishop Fires. It was east of Frankfurt M in the city that a far-flung extremist killed nine people in 2020 with a migration background. The discussion is to detect lessons learned from this racist crime.
This article was original in German.
When you are here: Every Tuesday, what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.