Germany's Merz warns against 'right-wing radicalism'

Germany's conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has categorically rejected any softening of the party's stance on non-cooperation with the far right, warning that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) should not be allowed into power.

"I have definitively decided to seek approval for our policies exclusively in the political centre of our country," Merz said at a party conference of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Stuttgart.

"It is true that this narrows us down to a coalition with the SPD [Social Democrats] at the moment," he admitted. The two mainstream parties have been in coalition under Merz's leadership since May.

The legacy of the country's history should not be squandered for the sake of short-term political successes in cooperation with right-wing populist forces, he argued, referring to the AfD.

He would not allow "these people from the so-called 'Alternative for Germany' to ruin our country," Merz said. "This party cannot be a partner for us."

The CDU must "prevent right-wing radicalism from moving back into the state chancelleries in Germany," he said, with particular reference to state elections in the east of the country later this year.