Tensions are increasing as Germany's February 23 federal election draws closer, with the campaign becoming rougher as candidates fight for every vote.

But the mood grew even more tense after the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), currently leading in the polls along with the allied Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), introduced two motions and a bill into parliament to tighten immigration and asylum policies.

The conservative bloc was unable to agree on a joint approach with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz or the environmentalist Greens. But CDU leader Friedrich Merz decided to forge ahead anyway, accepting the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in order to get a majority for the motion with his five-point-plan on January 29. Two days later, however, Merz failed to get anti-immigration legislation passed, despite continued........

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