The Family Business Association’s willingness to talk to the AfD was met with sharp criticism from the Green Party and CDU. “The right-wing extremist party, which our security authorities have strongly warned about, cannot be a conversation partner for the Democrats,” the co-chairs of the Green parliamentary group, Konstantin von Notz and Andreas Audretsch, told the German editorial network.
They strongly believe that the President of the Family Business Association, Marie-Christine Ostermann, is pursuing her personal political agenda with her statements and does not represent the majority of family businesses. “The approximately 6,500 companies that make up this association should seriously consider whether Ms. Ostermann, as head of the association, truly speaks on their behalf regarding such relativization and dangerous developments. In this regard, we hope and hope for a correction of recent, historically forgotten statements,” said von Notz and Audretsch.
Ostermann, has told “Handelsblatt” that the “ban on contacts” with AfD members in the Bundestag was lifted on the eve of the latest parliament in early October. The association had decided in the spring “that we would start talking to individual AfD politicians,” he said. The party must be given content.
“Will exports torpedo and destroy jobs”
The head of the CDU’s economic wing, Gitta Connemann, also criticized the association’s move. The AfD program and its attitude are very detrimental to Germany as a business location, Connemann told “Handelsblatt”. The federal chairman of the SME and Economic Union also warned in relation to foreign trade: “AfD-style nationalist economic policies will destroy these exports, destroying supply chains and jobs.”
Economist Marcel Fratzscher warned against treating the AfD like an ordinary party. This “could cause major damage to the German economy both abroad and at home,” the President of the German Institute for Economic Research told “Handelsblatt”. Associations and companies are allowed to “take clear political and social positions and communicate them publicly and visibly.”
