The German Bundestag passed Friedrich Merz's so-called five-point migration plan — which promised a dramatic tightening of the country's migration and asylum law — through parliament.
MPs narrowly voted in favour of turning away asylum seekers and other migrants back at Germany's borders — despite criticism that this could break both German and EU asylum law.
The measure is non-binding, but Merz could now push for a decision on the law's passage through parliament as soon as this week.
Ahead of the vote, Merz, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader and candidate for chancellor in the upcoming election, was accused of backtracking on his position of not working with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and breaching the so-called "firewall" against the far-right party to pass the measures.
The AfD chief whip Bernd Baumann called its success a "historic moment," adding that a "countermovement against the left-green mainstream" in all Western countries had now arrived in Germany.
Scholz: 'Unforgivable mistake'
Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Merz's decision to accept votes from the AfD an "unforgiveable mistake" in a fiery debate ahead of the vote.
Scholz pointed out that Merz's proposals contradicted European-wide asylum law such as the Geneva Convention as well as German law.
He said that Merz's proposals would violate EU law, something that “no German chancellor would have ever done.”
Merz, for his part, said the European immigration and asylum system was "dysfunctional" and insisted that his measures were necessary to combat crimes committed by asylum seekers.
He addressed the widespread criticism that he was working with the far-right, saying that getting votes from the AfD would make him "extremely uncomfortable". However, Merz ultimately concluded it would be necessary to deal with violence in Germany.
Merz's proposals followed a knife attack in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg last week, where two people were killed by an asylum seeker from Afghanistan who was scheduled to be deported.
He directly addressed the attack as well as another attack in Magdeburg shortly before Christmas, in which a Saudi-born doctor rammed a car into a Christmas market, killing six people.
“How many more people have to be murdered? How many more children have to fall victims to such acts of violence before you believe that this is a threat to public safety and order?,” Merz asked parliament ahead of the vote.
Merz and the CDU are currently leading in the polls with 29% of the vote ahead of the country's federal elections scheduled for 23 February.
The poll released on Wednesday by YouGov shows the AfD in second place with 23% and Scholz's Social Democrats in third place with 15%.
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