Germany's parliament rejected on Friday an opposition draft law on tightening immigration policy, averting the prospect of a law passing for the first time in modern German history thanks to the backing of the far-right.
On Wednesday the Bundestag lower house passed a non-binding motion on migration proposed by the opposition conservatives with the support of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), breaking a taboo against cooperating with the far-right party, which is under surveillance by Germany's security services.
But this time 12 conservative lawmakers opted not to back the draft bill sponsored by their own leader Friedrich Merz, who opinion polls suggest will be Germany's next chancellor after a national election set for Feb. 23.
Their failure to endorse his draft deals a blow to the authority of Merz, who had pushed for the law despite warnings from party colleagues that he risked being tarnished with the charge of voting alongside the far-right.
"The draft law is rejected," said parliament vice-president Petra Pau, announcing that 338 lawmakers had backed Merz's bill calling for restrictions on family reunification and more expulsions at the borders, while 350 had voted against.
"I would have liked to see a different result but this creates clarity," Merz told reporters after the vote.
Wednesday's vote, which had passed with AfD backing, prompted nationwide protests, a high-profile resignation from Merz's CDU party, and rebukes from former Chancellor Angela Merkel, a predecessor as party leader, and Germany's Protestant and Catholic churches.
Merz had argued that the restrictions outlined in Friday's draft bill were a necessary response to a series of high-profile killings in public spaces by people with an immigrant background.
Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats and their Greens coalition partner said they would not back measures that they believed illegal under European law and which they said would not have helped prevent the deadly attacks.
