The move comes after a series of deadly attacks have darkened the mood in Germany over the arrival of millions of war refugees and other asylum seekers in recent years, ahead of February 23 elections.
But he sparked outrage, large street protests and a chiding from his own party's veteran Angela Merkel when the CDU pushed a first motion through parliament Wednesday with backing from the AfD.
Thousands took to the streets in multiple rallies on Thursday waving signs that read “Shame on you”, “Friedrich Merz is a security risk for our democracy” and “We are the firewall”.
- Spate of attacks -
It would also boost the powers of federal police to detain undocumented migrants, whom Merz wants to place in custody and send back as soon as possible.
Unlike Wednesday's motion, it would eventually become a law if passed by the upper house, although this is considered highly unlikely to happen before the election.
Last week a man used a kitchen knife to attack kindergarten toddlers in a park in the southern city of Aschaffenburg, killing a two-year-old child and a man who tried to save the children.
In December, police arrested a Saudi man over a car-ramming attack in which an SUV barrelled through a crowded Christmas market, killing five and wounding hundreds in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
The AfD -- which rails against immigration, Islam and multiculturalism and is close to right-wing populist forces abroad -- is polling at around 20 percent.
“I would be selling the soul of the CDU if I even thought about it,“ he said at a campaign event on Thursday.
He has nonetheless defended the unprecedented tactical use of AfD support in the national legislature, arguing that “a right decision doesn’t become wrong just because the wrong people agree to it”.
Amnesty International said “the attack in Aschaffenburg would not have been prevented” by the CDU’s bill, which “instead will only hurt the rights of refugees”.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,“ said its Germany chapter’s general secretary Julia Duchrow, who also voiced fears of an increase in random police checks and “racial profiling”.
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