Overview

• The CDU-SPD coalition signed its 'Verantwortung für Deutschland' agreement, clearing the path for Friedrich Merz's election as Chancellor on Tuesday.
• The government will exclude AfD members from chairing Bundestag committees following the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution's classification of the party as 'firmly right-wing extremist.'
• The AfD has filed lawsuits in Cologne challenging the extremist classification, claiming it harms democratic competition and seeking a court-ordered suspension of surveillance measures.
• Berlin's SPD leadership has called for preparing a Bundesrat initiative to potentially ban the AfD if the classification is upheld in court.
• NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul emphasized that removing AfD members from public service requires individual case reviews to prove breaches of loyalty obligations.