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That's the key condition. As soon as other partners aren't willing to give them what they want, they will not hesitate. They have literally just shown us that they won't. Those votes were a power play by Merz to signal to the SPD they shouldn't be too confident in their position as the only possible partner. That only makes sense if he's willing to go through with it.
Of course they are telling the public now that they won't do it. About three years ago Merz told us anybody who cooperated with the Nazis in the slightest would be excluded from the party the next day. I may have missed all the exclusions, but actually I think you cannot trust one word this man says.
Also it's not even a sure thing that Merz will be in charge for the next election. The "first row" in the CDU took a big step back when it came to posts in the new government, possibly because they are gambling it won't make it for the full 4 years. And if it doesn't, it'll be Spahn or one of the other extremists next.
Last time the Nazis came into power the conservatives acted in the same way and they will do it again. It's a property of conservatism, not of the individual actors. You can see that in other nations, the USA are only the most recent example. Conservatives will help anybody to power as long as it means they can avoid taxing the rich.
But wouldn't that make the AfD their second best option at best? The way you state it makes it seem as though they are actually poised to form a coalition with them, i.e. actually go for them as their prime partner in a coalition. I'd say they'd always try to form a coalition first with red, green and/or yellow.
Also, as stated, I don't see any hard-bitten aspirations to form a coalition with them later as the key driver in their reluctance to ban the AfD, but rather the fear of failure. Wouldn't you agree?