For the first time, a Berlin tech personality has openly spoken out in favor of breaking the sanitary cordon against the far right. In a publication on the elections.
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Following the implosion of Olaf Scholz's coalition on November 6, early elections should be held on February 23, 2025. According to the latest polls, only an alliance between the CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) , possibly with the Greens, has a chance of obtaining an absolute majority. So far, the CDU has ruled out any alliance with the far right, credited with 19% of voting intentions.
“Open yourself to a coalition with the AfD, imposing the condition that no member of the openly radical far-right party assumes political responsibility”suggests Mr. Reber to Friedrich Merz, president of the CDU and probable future chancellor.
A political agreement now
The entrepreneur and investor, who founded the start-up Wunderlist, sold in 2015 to Microsoft, presents himself as “former Greens voter”. He fears that the next coalition, if it does not include the AfD, will result in the far-right party becoming the country's leading political force in the 2029 elections, which he says he wants to avoid. He therefore recommends to Mr. Merz a political agreement now, which would require “maintaining Germany in the European Union and the Eurozone”.
“Defend with the AfD a German policy, close to citizens and European”he wrote, asking in particular “a strong economic policy” and one “radical debureaucratization”.
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The publication was included on Friday, November 15, in the widely followed newsletter of another celebrity on the German technology scene, Frank Thelen. “I am also of the opinion that the current almost 20% of AfD voters must be taken into account in a democracy – although I wish it had never come to this”, he wrote, saying he wanted “open a fair dialogue”.
The rest of his letter praises the initiative entrusted to billionaire Elon Musk in the future Trump administration, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which aims to “dismantle government bureaucracy”, in the words of the president-elect. It is difficult, in this context, not to consider that Elon Musk's participation in Mr. Trump's campaign contributed to demonizing the elected American president in the eyes of certain German tech entrepreneurs.
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