BERLIN

Holocaust survivor Albrecht Weinberg on Thursday announced his decision to return his federal order of merit award in protest of chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz's collaboration with the far-right AfD party.

“I'm very disappointed at the moment. I don't want to know anything. I can see my youth in front of me again. It's hard to believe,” said Weinberg, 99, who survived three concentration camps during the Holocaust.

“I don't understand how something like this can even happen after what happened,” he told German news magazine Stern.

German conservative leader Merz, favorite to become the next chancellor, drew widespread criticism on Wednesday by advancing an anti-immigration motion that relied on support from the AfD.

The motion of Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), which called for turning away irregular migrants as well as asylum seekers at German border succeeded with 348 votes to 345, critically relying on 75 AfD votes.

This marked the CDU/CSU's reversal of its longstanding policy against cooperating with the AfD, just weeks before the Feb. 23 parliamentary elections.