The front-runner for Germany’s next chancellor has vowed to press on with plans to overhaul the country’s asylum policies despite nationwide protests over a political alliance with the far-Right.

Friedrich Merz, the centre-Right leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, suffered a major political defeat on Friday when his migration bill backed by Alternative for Germany (AfD) was rejected in the Bundestag.

Defending his proposals, he said on Saturday: “We need a change of policy in Germany. We need a change of policy towards growth and employment. We need a change of policy towards a strict limitation of asylum seekers.”

“I give voters in Germany the guarantee that there will be a real turnaround in economic policy and asylum policy,” he told Bild, despite the blow dealt to his election campaign just weeks before the Feb 23 elections.

His party is making plans to put the reforms, which include turning away asylum seekers at the border and putting up permanent border controls, into a new “immediate programme” for the government at their party conference on Monday in Berlin.

Germany has been rocked by protests this week against Mr Merz’s unprecedented co-operation with the AfD, breaking the so-called “firewall” in German politics against working with the far-Right.