(AP) The German parliament narrowly rejected on Friday an opposition-sponsored bill calling for tougher rules on migration that risked becoming the first draft legislation to pass thanks to a far-right party. It became a focus of a controversy about the attitude toward the far right of the front-runner in Germany’s upcoming election.
Opposition leader and front-runner Friedrich Merz has put demands for a more restrictive approach to migration at the center of his campaign for the Feb. 23 election since a deadly knife attack last week by a rejected asylum-seeker.
The way he has done so prompted opponents to accuse him of breaking a taboo and endangering mainstream parties’ “firewall” against the far-right Alternative for Germany. He insists his position is unchanged and that he didn’t and won’t work with the party.
