Sawt Falasteen - German election favourite vows to pass migrant bill with far-right help

As MPs traded bitter recriminations in parliament, centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that Merz could no longer be trusted and voiced fears the conservative candidate may in future invite the Alternative for Germany into a coalition government.

In a climate inflamed by a string of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers, CDU chief Merz, whose alliance has a strong lead ahead of February 23 elections, has vowed a harsh crackdown on illegal migrants and to beef up border controls.

He has faced huge blowback for breaking a long-standing "firewall" against cooperating with the AfD in a motion on Wednesday -- but on Friday vowed to stay the course.

After hours of frantic backroom talks between mainstream party leaders failed to reach a compromise, Merz vowed to go ahead, arguing passionately that German voters demand greater security.

"The people out there who are listening and watching in these turbulent days don't want us to argue among ourselves about the AfD," he told the chamber, to boos and jeers from his opponents.

"They want us to find solutions to the questions that concern people's everyday lives day after day... so that the people in our country can feel safe again."

A senior MP from Scholz's Social Democrats, Rolf Muetzenich, implored Merz not to side with the AfD again after Wednesday's "fall from grace".

"We can still close the gate of hell... together," he dramatically told Merz in the Bundestag. "You have to put up the firewall again!"

- Clash with Merkel -

Wednesday's historic vote was cheered by the anti-immigration AfD but put Merz on the defensive as even his party's former chancellor Angela Merkel broke years of silence on day-to-day politics to slam it as "wrong".

Scholz in comments to weekly newspaper Zeit charged that Merz's tactical manoeuvre was a breach of his previous promises to shun the AfD and left him "open to the accusation that he is untrustworthy".

Scholz even raised the spectre of Merz, if he wins, one day allowing the AfD into a government -- a scenario that horrifies the mainstream parties in a country that is still seeking to atone for the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.

Merz has strongly criticised the AfD and vowed never to govern with them, while arguing that the immigration debate should not be dominated by the extremist party.

Seeking to speak to voters drifting to the AfD, he has vowed an about-turn from the open-door policy of his more centrist predecessor and party rival Merkel.

The CDU and its Bavarian allies the CSU on Friday want to pass the so-called Influx Limitation Act which would restrict family reunions for rejected asylum seekers with stays of deportation.

While Wednesday's motion was a non-binding call to restrict immigration, the proposal on Friday's agenda would have the force of law, marking another milestone in German politics.

If enacted, it will also boost the powers of federal police to detain undocumented migrants, whom Merz wants to place in custody and send back as soon as possible.

- 'We are the firewall' -

Thousands took to the streets against Merz in street rallies on Thursday, waving signs that read: "Shame on you", "Friedrich Merz is a security risk for our democracy" and "We are the firewall".

His move comes after a series of deadly attacks that have darkened the mood in Germany over the arrival of millions of war refugees and other asylum seekers in recent years.

Last week a man used a kitchen knife to attack kindergarten toddlers in the southern city of Aschaffenburg, killing a two-year-old child and a man who tried to save the children.

Police arrested a 28-year-old Afghan man, who had stayed despite a deportation order to Bulgaria, where he entered the EU, and who is now being held in a psychiatric institution.

In December, police arrested a Saudi man over a car-ramming attack in which an SUV barrelled through a crowded Christmas market, killing five and wounding hundreds in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

U.Shaheen--SF-PST