F This is a new experience for the Greens and the Left. Firewall debates usually only cause trouble for the center-right camp – due to the closer proximity to the AfD in terms of content, the Union and FDP are ultimately tempted to vote with the right much more often. The voting debacle on the Mercosur agreement in the European Parliament Now, for a change, the left-wing camp has the opportunity to understand the purpose and functionality of the firewall. Apparently this is also urgently needed.
That shows Attempted explanations like that of Green MP Anna Cavazzini. She expresses contriteness, but at the same time emphasizes that the enormously heterogeneous parliamentary majority for Mercosur – including the German Greens, the Left and the AfD – was a coincidence. No “structured cooperation”, unlike “conservatives with the right-wing extremists” a few months ago in the same place on supply chain laws.
That can be good. However, the difference is irrelevant. In fact, there are various forms of cooperation between the AfD and democratic parties. The most direct and rarest variant is approval of AfD proposals or jointly agreed majorities. It’s just below this level, what Friedrich Merz did a year ago in the Bundestag with his deportation proposals: He took up AfD content, packaged it into his own proposals and put them to the vote – knowing full well that they would only find a majority with AfD votes.
At Mercosur, the Greens and the Left did not allow themselves to be driven by the AfD’s content. Both sides came to a unified position for opposing motives. With a little benevolence you can also believe that Cavazzini and others did not calculate that their application would only get through thanks to AfD votes. With eight factions and no compulsory faction, the EU Parliament is so confusing that negligence seems at least plausible.
But this plays no role in the consequences of voting behavior. A central purpose of the firewall is to prevent the AfD from becoming a power factor in parliaments. It’s bad enough that the party has been able to shift the discourse for years and thereby credibly convey to its voters that it is making a difference. The Democrats should not give her the opportunity to decide votes directly – regardless of whether it is about deportations in the Bundestag, free trade in the EU Parliament or the garbage collection calendar in the city council.
Even a seemingly harmless vote can trigger a chain reaction. In a paper from 2025 Political scientists led by Wolfgang Schroeder also distinguished between different forms of cooperation with the AfD and, accordingly, between first and second order firewalls. However, according to them, the two are closely related: “Metaphorically speaking, both fire walls stand one behind the other – if the first wall is broken, it is then easier to break through the second wall as well.”
Now it is unlikely that the Greens and the Left will push through further tightening of asylum law together with the AfD in the second step. The Mercosur vote on Wednesday could certainly have an impact on the future of the firewall at the CDU and CSU.
The German conservatives have to be given credit for all the outliers: in the vast majority of cases, they have so far forgone joint coordination with the AfD and thus foregone tactical advantages and the assertion of their own positions. The Union could now increasingly question this still relatively stable stance: Why should it continue to forego majorities if the other side takes the AfD’s votes at the first opportunity? Possibly linked to the suspicion: Are the center-left parties with their firewall sermons not so much concerned with protecting the democratic system – but rather with their own advantage over their democratic competitors?
It is therefore right that the Green MEPs are following criticism from their own ranks Pledge to get better. In fact, even in the confusing EU Parliament, things would be different: systematically hold discussions with all democrats before voting, count votes, and, if a majority without right-wing extremists is not certain, withdraw your own motions if necessary instead of putting them up for a vote. It’s tedious and unsatisfactory, but that’s how the firewall works. The center-right camp has known this for a long time.