The entire debate was characterised by security hysteria and racist propaganda against immigrants. It began with a moment of silence for the victims of the attack in Aschaffenburg, where a week ago a mentally ill refugee from Afghanistan killed a small child and a man.

Germany's centrist CDU and conservative AFD parties joined forces Wednesday to push through in parliament a text aimed at strengthening migration policy, just weeks before legislative elections. The motion, which is non-binding but has a high symbolic value, was proposed by the conservatives, favorites in the polls for the Feb. 23 elections, and supported by the Alternative for Germany (AFD), without whom the text could not have been approved.

AfD voted alongside the center-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany on Wednesday to successfully pass a proposal that could severely restrict asylum and migration policies for the country. “Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany over 75 years ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats in our parliaments: we do not make common cause with the far Right,” lamented German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party.