AfD plans for Europe: Right-wing extremist shredding program

The AfD is not only preparing to form a government in Saxony-Anhalt. The right-wing extremist party of Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla also wants to grab power at the federal level and in the EU. To support its claim, Weidel has now presented a new European program. It boils down to the dismantling of the EU and a “German Europe” led by “patriotic forces”.

If the AfD has its way, Germany should play a dominant role in the future. The largest EU country should no longer be the “overburdened paymaster,” says the 25-page program that Weidel presented to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, of all places. Germany should radically reduce its EU contribution and leave European joint tasks by “opting out”.

The paper cites migration, social and foreign policy as examples. Decisions about war and peace are a sovereign right and should not be delegated to supranational organizations such as the EU. The AfD is thus preparing to withdraw from the billion-dollar Ukraine aid, even if this is not said so openly.

The European Parliament is to be wound down - into a powerless chamber to which the EU states send their delegates from the national parliaments. It was similar before the introduction of the European elections, which the AfD would consequently like to abolish. Legitimacy comes solely from national parliaments, she says.

According to the AfD plans, the European Commission would be disempowered. In any case, the Brussels authority is being downgraded to a secretariat for the 27 heads of state and government, who are supposed to have the final say on all important issues. The European Central Bank should primarily monitor the stability of the euro and strict budget discipline in the member states.

There is no longer any talk of leaving the euro – the AfD's former heartfelt concern. A Dexit, i.e. Germany's exit from the EU along the lines of Britain's Brexit, is no longer on the agenda. Weidel had praised Brexit as a “model for Germany” before the European elections in 2024. Today she doesn't want to know anything about it anymore.

The AfD leader is apparently emulating French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen and trying to project a moderate image. Le Pen traveled to Brussels a week ago to convince the press of her supposedly moderate European program and to dispel fears of a change of power in Paris.

Weidel has now tried a similar maneuver. The EU is “in its current form in great need of reform,” she said in Strasbourg. Not even EU supporters would disagree with that. The reform backlog in Brussels is even an issue in Berlin, where Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (both CDU) regularly call for the reduction of bureaucracy and an end to the right to veto EU decisions.

However, by reform, Weidel means the dismantling of the EU, while Merz and Wadephul promote “more Europe”. However, the stark programmatic differences do not prevent the CDU/CSU in the European Parliament from working with the AfD on certain occasions. Christian Democrats and the right even voted together on the controversial EU asylum reform.

The firewall that is much talked about in Berlin has long since been torn down in the parliament in Strasbourg. People meet in chat groups and forge common majorities “against the left”. However, there is nothing about this in the AfD's strategy paper. It's a shame, because the AfD has long been working on legislation in the EU - with far-reaching consequences for Germany too.