German CDU party headquarters evacuated after security warning

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA)- Germany’s main opposition CDU party evacuated its headquarters in Berlin on Thursday after police warned of potential violence and disruptive actions against party offices.

Staff members were ordered to immediately leave the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus building, according to a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) spokesman. The exact nature of the threat was not immediately clear.

Ottilie Klein, secretary general of the CDU Berlin, announced on X that the State Criminal Police Office had informed them about possible planned attacks on party offices.

“We will continue to engage in any debate. But anyone who sees violence as a legitimate means is not a democrat. Criminal acts are not an expression of political opinion,” she said.

The center-right CDU and its Bavarian ally the CSU faced widespread criticism on Wednesday after reversing their longstanding policy against cooperating with the far-right AfD, just weeks before the Feb. 23 parliamentary elections.

A motion by the CDU/CSU alliance, which called for turning away irregular migrants as well as asylum seekers at German borders, passed the Bundestag or parliament narrowly 348-345, crucially depending on 75 AfD votes.

A demonstration was planned later on Thursday in front of the CDU headquarters, with police already deployed in large numbers at the scene. Police sources did not immediately confirm whether there was a direct connection to the reported security threat.

The Bundestag is set to vote Friday on a controversial immigration bill proposed by the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU). The bill seeks stricter measures to limit irregular migration and would indefinitely suspend family reunification for those with subsidiary protection status. To pass the bill, the CDU/CSU requires support from both the pro-business FDP and the far-right AfD.