http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/68dddaaec3517b3b https://verfassungsblog.de/drawing-red-lines/ Drawing Red Lines - With Whom One May Want to Cooperate in a Democracy Steinbeis, Maximilian eng 2026-02-13 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 AfD Authoritarian Populism Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 Lately, there has been much talk of “red lines” in German politics. Take, for instance, the recent recommendations of the conservative think tank Republik21 on how to deal with the so-called “New Right”, according to which the “Brandmauer” policy of strict exclusion of the AfD should be replaced with differentiated red lines. CDU and CSU should in future determine their course on the basis of what is “constitutionally permissible” and what is “politically capable of commanding consent”. In other words: the question of what counts as a red line when forming majorities with the AfD, where it runs and what it separates from what, is, according to R21, something conservatives should answer by looking into the Basic Law – or into the mirror. Can that work?