section_path: Campaign/Possible coalitions/Firewall and alleged Union-AfD cooperation
section_name: Firewall and alleged Union-AfD cooperation
paragraph_text: Firewall and alleged Union-AfD cooperation
  
  The CDU, SPD, Greens and FDP all refuse to form a coalition including the BSW on the federal level, despite the SPD-BSW coalition (Red–purple coalition) in office in Brandenburg and a CDU-SPD-BSW coalition (blackberry coalition) in Thuringia.
  
  All other parties also refuse to form a coalition with or cooperate with the AfD. The CDU has passed a " resolution of incompatibility " regarding the AfD and The Left, prohibiting cooperation with either party at the federal level; the FDP will also not work with The Left.
  
  Following a stabbing attack in Aschaffenburg on 22 January, in which a rejected Afghan asylum seeker killed two people, Merz announced that the Union would introduce two non-binding resolutions on migration policy and homeland security to the Bundestag, appealing to SPD and Green lawmakers for their support. Despite high-ranking members of both parties rejecting these initiatives, Merz's "five-point plan" on migration was adopted on 29 January with votes from the Union, FDP and AfD, marking a historic first on the federal level. Lawmakers from the SPD, Greens and Left Party strongly criticized Merz for his alleged cooperation with the AfD, which the Union denied; Catholic, Protestant and Jewish representatives and retired CDU chancellor Angela Merkel voiced similar concerns. Following the vote, hundreds of thousands of protesters attended demonstrations against Merz's decisions across Germany. Subsequently, a similar bill proposed by the Union to limit migrant intake was defeated in the Bundestag on 31 January, despite the AfD's support.
  
  While the debate on the cordon sanitaire dominated political discourse the following weeks, Politbarometer data suggested popular opinion to be split evenly between approval and criticism of Merz's course of action, resulting in no major polling shifts.