Overview
- Markus Söder said it was a mistake to push the Union’s migration plan through with AfD votes and vowed the party will not back AfD motions or enter formal cooperation.
- He stated AfD votes should only be tolerated when a majority exists without them and dismissed talk of an AfD‑tolerated minority government as a “nonsense idea.”
- Söder criticized the AfD’s new youth group as featuring a “Hitler‑clown” and recalled the party seizing on January’s vote, arguing the episode split the Union and energized opponents.
- He said the rent package’s Bundestag majority was never in doubt, credited Jens Spahn and the Junge Gruppe for securing it, and pointed to a forthcoming pensions commission for reforms.
- Söder downplayed the fiscal weight of the Mütterrente as about one percent of pension volume, while economists Monika Schnitzer and journalist Julia Löhr faulted current economic policy as worsening problems and his tone drew notice for testiness.