The German conservative bloc's candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, admitted that his party voted for a new migration law with the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, even though he had previously promised not to cooperate with it.

"I am aware that this was a departure from the agreement with the other ruling parties," Merz said at an election rally in Potsdam.

Merz, who is the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the conservative bloc's candidate for chancellor, previously promised the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens that he would make decisions exclusively with them, so as not to create a majority with the AfD - a party that other parties reject due to extremism.

In November, after the liberals left the government, Germany's "traffic light coalition" collapsed, leaving the SPD and the Greens as the sole governing parties. However, Merz used the AfD votes to pass a law on stricter migration policies.

As justification for this decision, he pointed to two recent violent attacks in Germany carried out by migrants.

“But then Magdeburg and Aschfenburg happened,” he said. In December, a Saudi Arabian man killed six people and injured nearly 300 at a Christmas market in Magdeburg. In Aschfenburg, an Afghan is the prime suspect in a knife attack that killed two people.

Merz, however, insists that, if he becomes chancellor after the February 23 election, there will be no cooperation with the AfD.

"There will be no cooperation between the CDU and the AfD, neither now nor in the future," said the conservative candidate for chancellor.