Sawt Falasteen - German conservatives bet on far-right support but lose key vote

CDU chief Friedrich Merz, the election frontrunner, defied a passionate outcry and noisy street protests to seek the parliamentary support of the Alternative for Germany party for a second time this week.

Centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that his rival could no longer be trusted and voiced fears that if Merz wins the February 23 elections, he may in future invite the AfD to join his government.

Merz launched his all-out immigration crackdown after police arrested an Afghan man following a deadly knife attack a week ago against a group of kindergarten children.

Speaking after the parliamentary defeat, Merz said he regretted the outcome but maintained that he had emerged stronger from a battle that had "brought clarity" on where all parties stood.

Friday's bill would have boosted federal police powers to detain undocumented migrants and restricted family reunions for rejected asylum seekers with stays of deportation.

If the bill had passed, it would have been the first time in Germany's post-World War II history that a mainstream party relied on extremist backing to pass legislation.

Merz has faced a massive backlash for breaching a long-standing "firewall" against any cooperation with a right-wing extremist AfD, but defied the storm of opposition to stay the course.

He said he rejected the term "firewall" and, in reference to immigration and security, warned that "we must put out the fire and not let it become a wildfire".

- 'Gates of hell' -

Merz told parliament that "the people out there who are listening and watching in these turbulent days don't want us to argue among ourselves about the AfD".

"They want us to find solutions to the questions that concern people's everyday lives 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 for a second time after Wednesday's "fall from grace".

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

In the end, after MPs traded more bitter recriminations and jeers, the bill for the so-called Influx Limitation Act was defeated with 338 votes in favour and 350 votes against.

AfD leader Alice Weidel told reporters that the result was a "bitter defeat" for Merz and showed his inability to push through measures restricting immigration.

In a climate inflamed by a string of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers, the CDU-CSU alliance of Merz has a strong lead ahead of February 23 elections.

But his vow to go "all in" on immigration and allow AfD support has been a high-stakes gamble.

His party's former chancellor Angela Merkel broke years of silence on day-to-day politics on Thursday to slam the tactic as "wrong".

Scholz on Friday demonstratively placed a copy of Merkel's autobiography "Freedom" on his parliament desk.

- 'We are the firewall' -

In comments to weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Scholz 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 appeal 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.

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 six and wounding hundreds in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

H.Jarrar--SF-PST