2023-08-07 07:49:30
POLITICS
Germany’s far-right AfD on Sunday said the European Union was a “failed project” that needed a radical overhaul, but stopped short of calling for its dissolution at a closely watched party congress.
Published: 7 August 2023 07:49 CEST
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla and parliamentary leader Alice Weidel speak at a party conference in Magdeburg on Sunday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert
More than 600 delegates from the anti-immigration AfD — currently Germany’s second most popular party — gathered in the eastern city of Magdeburg at the weekend to finalise the programme for next year’s European Parliament elections.
“We consider the EU unreformable and see it as a failed project,” said the text adopted by delegates.
Instead, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wants to create “a federation of European nations, a new European economic and interest community that preserves the sovereignty of member states”.
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The text agreed on the final day of the congress is a watered-down version of a draft published in June that had called for the “orderly dissolution of the EU” — which party leaders later insisted was an “editorial error”.
The new programme also made no mention of a so-called Dexit, or German exit from the EU, an idea that had been floated by some AfD delegates but is hugely unpopular among German voters.
The AfD has enjoyed a record surge in support in recent months, buoyed by a weakening economy and growing discontent with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition.
The anti-Islam, climate-sceptic AfD has been polling at around 20 percent in opinion surveys, behind only Scholz’s Social Democrats.
The AfD, which has long railed against the euro, the bloc’s climate and migration policies and EU sanctions on Russia, hopes to capitalise on its recent success by capturing more seats in the European Parliament.
The party agreed at its congress, held over two consecutive weekends, to field a record 35 MEP candidates in next June’s elections.
It currently has nine European lawmakers.
The AfD is also eyeing a breakthrough in regional elections in three eastern German states next year, where it traditionally has the strongest support base.
“We are ready for more,” AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla told broadcaster ZDF, adding that the party wanted “to get out of the opposition and into government”.
But mainstream parties in Germany, where coalition governments are the norm, have ruled out teaming up with the AfD.
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