Merz pledges to block far-right AfD, warning of a changed world

Economic Reforms and Security Agenda

BERLIN, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed on Friday not to let the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party "ruin" Germany and told his fellow conservatives to prepare for a raw new climate of great-power competition.

Merz's message to the Christian Democrat (CDU) party's conference in Stuttgart reiterated points he made at last weekend's Munich Security Conference alongside calls for economic reform, and a rejection of antisemitism and the AfD, which is aiming to win its first state election this year.

Merz's Stance on AfD and Party Unity

"We will not allow these people from the so-called Alternative for Germany to ruin our country," he told party delegates, who welcomed former chancellor Angela Merkel with a storm of applause on her first visit to the conference since stepping down in 2021.

Merz, trailing badly in the polls ahead of a string of state elections this year, said he accepted criticism that the reforms announced during last year's election campaign had been slower than initially communicated.

Cutting Bureaucracy and Energy Costs

He promised to push ahead with efforts to cut bureaucracy, bring down energy costs and foster investment, saying that economic prosperity was vital to Germany's security.

Welfare and Pension Overhauls

He also pledged further reforms of the welfare state and said new proposals for a reform of the pension system would be presented, following a revolt by younger members of his own party in a bruising parliamentary battle last year.

State Elections and Polls

The elections begin next month with the western states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate before a further round later in the year, one of them in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD hopes to win its first state ballot.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Friederike Heine, Editing by Linda Pasquini and Philippa Fletcher)