00:00A sigh of relief as the result is announced and a crushing defeat for conservative opposition
00:11leader Friedrich Merz.
00:13The German parliament has rejected his draft bill aimed at limiting irregular migration.
00:20In a heated and sometimes emotional debate, Merz, conservative leader and chancellor candidate,
00:27faced accusations of seeking to push his legislation through with the backing of the
00:32far-right AfD.
00:34The fall from grace will be with you forever, but we can still close the gates of hell together.
00:47You must raise the firewall, you must raise the firewall again, raise the firewall again.
00:55And the German foreign minister accused him of not telling the truth.
01:02What is unacceptable is making a mistake, failing to acknowledge it with the humility
01:07to say, I got it wrong, and instead shifting the blame onto others and spreading falsehoods,
01:16spreading falsehoods, especially at a time when people in our country are fearful.
01:24For the vote, Merz defended his approach of tolerating coincidental AfD-backed majorities
01:31as he is not actively looking for them.
01:36No one from my party extends a hand to the AfD, no one.
01:44This party is, for the most part, a far-right extremist party.
01:49This party undermines the foundation of our democracy.
01:54Merz lacked the support of 12 lawmakers from his own party group, a decisive margin.
01:59The far-right ceased the moment to question his leadership.
02:02The rejection of the bill by his own parliamentary group is the disempowerment of Friedrich Merz
02:08as a chancellor candidate.
02:11While it was surely Merz suffering a blatant defeat, after the debate, no one came out
02:17looking like a winner.
Comments