The Price of the Fire Wall – How the CDU Uses Taxpayer Money to Strengthen the AfD

There are affairs that disappear after a few days, and there are events that shift the foundation of a democracy. 250,000 euros of taxpayer money for a think tank whose leaders have been advocating cooperation with the AfD for years clearly belong to the second category. The fact that the CDU pushed this funding through in the Bundestag is not an accident, but an expression of a strategic development. And while Berlin still argues about budget positions, political reality outside the capital has already delivered the bill: the AfD is at 27 percent and thus clearly ahead of the Union.

Andreas Rödder, CDU member, historian, for a long time head of his party’s Commission on Fundamental Values

Republik21, or R21 for short, calls itself a "new bourgeois think tank." But bourgeois here is only the facade. Behind the scenes are familiar slogans: nuclear power as a promise of salvation, the welfare state as a supposed brake, migration as a threat, the energy transition as madness. The explosive element comes when you look at which networks and figures are coming together here. At R21 events speakers also appear who are active on platforms such as Nius – a medium that systematically attacks independent press. R21 supports blogs that defame public broadcasting and thus provides ammunition for a culture war in which the narrative is constantly repeated that Germany is in the stranglehold of "left-green-woke forces." The supposed fight for freedom is nothing more than an attempt to prepare the ground for normalizing the extreme.

At the center stands Andreas Rödder, CDU member, historian, for a long time head of his party’s Commission on Fundamental Values. He is one of those who have been calling for a "strategic opening" toward the AfD for years. Rödder has described Alexander Gauland, who relativized the Nazi era as a "bird shit" in history, as "respectable." Such statements are not slips, but a program. R21 is meant to be the hinge at which the CDU loses its inhibitions and the fire wall begins to crumble. Officially the CDU leadership has sworn for years that the fire wall stands. But words and deeds fall apart. Under Friedrich Merz, party chairman and chancellor, the party has taken a course sold as "a clear edge," but in truth it is a flirtation with the far right. Several times the Union has voted in the Bundestag together with the AfD, most recently on motions to restrict NGOs. Jens Spahn, now parliamentary group leader, reinforces this course. He feeds right-wing populist narratives, stages himself as a fighter against "gender ideology," publicly defends right-wing US politicians and long since acts as a link in an international network from Orbán to Trump. That this very CDU is now supplying R21 with taxpayer money is not a slip, but consistent politics.

The current Forsa Sunday question for RTL/n-tv from September 23, 2025 shows the consequences in brutal clarity: AfD 27 percent, Union 25, SPD 13, Greens and Left each 11, BSW 4, FDP 3. For the first time the AfD is not only briefly, but stably in the lead. And it is no longer a surprise. As early as April Ipsos had placed it ahead of the Union in a nationwide poll, at the end of August it was again at the top in the RTL/n-tv trend barometer. With the record value of 27 percent the trend has solidified. While the Union believes it can win back votes by approaching the far right, it is losing its leading role.

The bitter truth is that the CDU itself knows this course is a dead end. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation, its own party foundation, has just published a study showing that any form of cooperation with the AfD only strengthens it. Merz and Spahn ignore this finding. Instead they finance a think tank that builds bridges that are no longer meant to be torn down. The SPD shares responsibility because in the budget committee it approved the large spending package that included funding for R21. Whether it was a political deal or simply carelessness remains open. Either way it would be fatal. But the crucial point remains: the initiative came from the CDU, and without it the money would never have flowed.

"Still" there is a lack of court-proof evidence of corruption from investigations into the relationship between CGM and Spahn, which highlight problematic structures and a lack of transparency. What is clear is this: under Spahn’s laws CGM’s revenues rose sharply, while company founder Frank Gotthardt at the same time appeared as an investor in the right-wing portal Nius. The fact that authorities refused to provide information about possible contacts is also documented – the last piece of the puzzle thus deliberately remains in the dark. But there are ways for that too.

Within the Union three groups face each other. The first sees the AfD as a deadly danger and rejects any cooperation. The second trivializes it and believes it can be tamed in conversation. The third knows very well what it is doing: it wants the AfD as a future coalition partner because only in this way can it push through its right-conservative ideas. Today this third camp dominates, flanked by the naive who, out of passivity, go along with every move. Thus the CDU does not become a bulwark, but a stirrup holder. The double standard makes the scandal even sharper. The same CDU that wants to cut funding for NGOs – including many that work against right-wing extremism – is giving money to a think tank that strengthens right-wing networks. This is reminiscent of authoritarian models: Orbán in Hungary defamed civil society organizations and fed government-loyal think tanks. Trump tried the same in the US, attacking progressive NGOs while fattening up right-wing structures. The CDU is now placing itself in this line.

The big problem is this: the closeness of CDU elites to right-wing think tanks like R21 is an issue that is hardly pursued consistently in the media. Often there are only brief reports, perhaps a commentary – and the next day it disappears again in the flood of news. One reason is that many editorial offices shy away from clearly stating the accusation of a "fire wall undermined," because it affects the CDU as a whole.

The Spahn-Klöckner-Nius complex is no coincidence, but strategy. Jens Spahn and Julia Klöckner no longer just reach for conservative phrases, they are step by step normalizing the AfD

Anyone who believes Germany is protected from such developments is mistaken. Orbán transformed Fidesz in Hungary into an autocracy by merging with the extreme right. In Poland PiS took the same path by tying itself to culture wars. In the US the Republicans have long since become fully captive to Trump. Germany today stands at a threshold. The CDU must decide whether it remains a bulwark or becomes a door opener. With the funding of R21 it has in fact already made this decision. The 250,000 euros are not an ordinary budget decision. They are a signal. They show that the fire wall in truth no longer stands, but has become a facade. The polls are the receipt: the AfD is not weakened, it is strengthened. Ipsos showed it in April, Forsa at the end of August, and now the record high in September.

This is more than a number. It is a warning sign. Germany risks going down the same path as Hungary, Poland or the US. And the CDU is not playing the victim here, but an active role. Anyone who still believes that the AfD can be restrained through half-hearted distance is dangerously mistaken. History shows where it leads: those who hold the stirrup for the extreme right will not ride with it. They will be buried beneath it.