Warning of economic damage: trade association calls AfD “absolutely anti-business”

afp/dpa/epd | The German Trade Association (HDE) has warned of the consequences of the AfD policy for retail. Their hostility to migration and economic demands such as a return to the German mark and exit from the EU made the party “unelectable,” said HDE general manager Stefan Genth to the “t-online” portal. “This party lacks state political responsibility.” Genth sharply criticized the concept of “remigration” propagated by the AfD. The word itself is an “absolute no-go”. Many employees in retail have a migration background. “If we could no longer employ all these people, our system would collapse. (…) Then we could close the shops.”

Genth described the exit from the euro as “absolutely anti-business”, an exit from the European Union was “completely impossible” and a pension level of 70 percent promised by the AfD could not be financed. “Such things cannot be implemented and are simply unaffordable.” According to the HDE boss, the AfD's strong election results in the East are already creating a deteriorating environment for retailers. “Retailers tell us of a very difficult climate, and in some cases hostility.”

Ahead of the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD is receiving prominent support from Moscow. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's representative for international economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, openly expressed his willingness to engage in economic cooperation with the party after a possible election victory. Moscow repeatedly claims that it will not interfere in other countries' elections. “Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will flourish again when affordable, reliable Nord Stream gas returns through joint work with the AfD,” Dmitriev wrote on Platform X.

Russia had repeatedly offered to pump cheap gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea pipeline again if sanctions were lifted. After the explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 Baltic Sea pipelines, there is only one intact but unused line of the original four lines. “Lower energy costs, more jobs and higher growth,” said Dmitriyev, referring to possible future gas deliveries. “No more German energy and industrial suicide,” Dmirijev said in a response to a post by AfD co-chair Alice Weidel, who called for change in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. He is also Putin's chief negotiator in talks with the US about ending Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

The AfD - like the BSW party - is calling for a resumption of gas deliveries to Moscow so that the German economy can again obtain cheap energy from Russia, as it did before Putin's attack on Ukraine. However, the election at the state level does not decide anything tangible on the issue. Russia's pipeline gas is subject to sanctions in the EU.

The former president of the Central Council of Jews, Charlotte Knobloch, has called for a ban on the AfD. “A lot of things about the AfD today remind me of the National Socialists’ path to power,” said the chairwoman of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria to the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Saturday). “The resistance that a party like her has to face from the democratic center began far too late in Germany,” criticized the 93-year-old in view of the AfD's rise in recent state elections and in surveys.

The AfD is a party “in which Jew-haters and extremists are teeming,” warned Knobloch. The party radiates hatred, “including hatred of Jews,” said Knobloch. “Unfortunately it has not yet been possible to put a stop to it, so it should be banned,” even if this “may be legally difficult.”

Five days before the election for the House of Representatives in Berlin, the apartment of an employee of AfD top candidate Kristin Brinker was searched. According to the Berlin public prosecutor's office, there is suspicion of a violation of the Explosives Act and the Weapons Act. A corresponding judicial search warrant was executed by the police in Berlin-Lichterfelde on September 15th, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said upon request. Previously, “Bild” and “B.Z.” reported.

According to the public prosecutor's office, no evidence was found "to support the accusation." However, the police seized other evidence, so-called accidental finds. These would now have to be examined forensically “before their criminal relevance can be assessed in more detail”. According to the newspaper reports, the investigators discovered drugs and Nazi memorabilia on the 48-year-old. AfD spokesman Ronald Glasse spoke of a “private matter”. “We are waiting for the investigation,” he said when asked. The "Bild" newspaper also quoted AfD top candidate Brinker as saying: "I never had any indication that he ticked in such a direction. He is simply a collector."