The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party expressed its opposition to the proposed budget increase on Thursday, with Kay Gottschalk, the party’s deputy federal chairman and a member of the Bundestag warning that the European Commission’s planned budget is not in Germany’s interest.
“There is no democratic legitimacy for the renewed rip-off of the commission, which will again cost Germany dearly. The EU urgently needs to be streamlined and not pumped up. That's what the AfD stands for,” Deputy AfD Federal Chairman Kay Gottschalk was cited as saying on May 3 by an official party press release.
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“The budgetary framework should be reduced by 11 percent, not increased by 11 percent. The money is best placed in the hands of individual states and not in a European super state,” the senior AfD official said.
“The individual states are being overthrown step-by-step and controlled by others. The hard-earned money of German taxpayers flows into the construction of other countries or nonsensical projects."
Although Germany is the largest net contributor to the union’s budget, other member states who are set to contribute more to the bloc after the UK’s exit also voiced their discontent, with Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands describing the proposals as “wrong” and “unacceptable.”
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