Germany Deserves to Have 'Dexit Option' - AfD Lawmakers
09:14 GMT 23.01.2024 (Updated: 09:33 GMT 23.01.2024)
© AP Photo / Markus Schreiber
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Alice Weidel, leader of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) that is hoping to make gains at both European Parliamentary elections in June and the regional elections in September, revealed to US media on Monday that failing adequate EU reform, Germany could “have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ - a German exit from the EU.”
If the numerous shortcomings of the European Union cannot be remedied, then a sovereign state such as Germany should have the option of leaving the EU, Dr. Dirk Spaniel, a member of Bundestag from the Alternative for Germany party, told Sputnik.
“First of all, the sheer existence of our party is about breaking political taboos. And the taboo of not leaving the European Union forever is indeed a taboo inside European and inside German politics,” he stated. The German politician pointed to the numerous failings of the European bloc “not only in terms of construction, but also in terms of policy practice,” noting:
“We [AfD] want to work to remedy these shortcomings. If this does not succeed, the option of leaving the European Union must also be conceivable for a sovereign state as a final consequence. We have some misinterpretation about when there will be this final consequence. First of all, we have to try to reconstruct the European Union.”
Britain was "right" when it opted to leave the European Union as part of "Brexit," Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel said in an article published in US media on Monday. Weidel pointed out that if her party's success in elections were to allow it to form a government, it would seek to reform the EU and remove its “democratic deficit,” including by curbing the powers of the European Commission, an “unelected executive.”
“If reform isn’t possible, if we fail to rebuild sovereignty of the EU member states, we should let the people decide, just as Britain did,” she said, adding that “we could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ - a German exit from the EU.”
As for the kind of reform that AfD’s Alice Weidel was referring to, Dirk Spaniel first of all singled out the need to tackle shortcomings linked with the “depressive proportionality in the elections in the European Parliament.” According to the existing setup, “the quota is around 15 to 20… So that means 20 times the weight of the vote. It's incompatible with the democratic principle of quality of vote,” the noted politician, deploring the fact that “a German voter carries much less weight than, for example, a voter of a small state, let's say Malta.”
At the same time, Germany is the “loan leader with around 17 billion euro in contributions to the European Union,” Dr.Spaniel said.
There are also some shortcomings linked to the appointment of the president of the European Commission and the three bodies - the European Council, European Commission and the European Parliament, the lawmaker added, saying:
“There is no clear democratic process to see for everyone who is trying to vote for the European Parliament. So this is just a few things we would change, we would address. It's not clear whether it can be done or whether we have to leave the European Union.”
Indeed, Germany is “by far the EU's largest net contributor without receiving any appropriate compensation in return. At the same time, the corrupt EU elites are trying to gradually destroy the national independence of the member states,” another AfD lawmaker, Dr. Christian Blex of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, told Sputnik.
“The EU is undemocratic because the European Parliament is not elected according to the fundamentally democratic principle of equal voting weight for every voter. The smaller the country, the greater the weight of each vote. The German votes have the lowest weight," Blex noted.
Furthermore, as the EU Council consists of members who are also members of national executive bodies, this "represents a violation of a fundamental principle of every democracy, namely the separation of powers," according to the lawmaker.
"The AfD wants to abolish the undemocratically elected EU Parliament and transfer legislative authority solely to the Council until the situation is reorganized. However, its members must be bound in their voting behavior to the decisions of the national parliaments,” said Christian Blex.
Besides the aforementioned problems of the EU's “construction,” Christian Blex named the euro, which has failed as a single currency for “countries with completely different economic developments and structures,” and the overwhelming surge in illegal immigration.
“The EU Freedom of Movement Directive grants EU citizens in Germany a legal status that almost completely corresponds to that of German citizens and leads to massive immigration into the German social system…The high inflation in favor of the Mediterranean countries is leading to the expropriation of German savings. The EU countries with external borders are passively watching the illegal mass immigration organized by criminal gangs of smugglers, allowing them to illegally travel on to Germany,” Dr. Christian Blex noted.
Germany, once the economic powerhouse of the EU, fell on hard times following Berlin’s 2022 decision to join in on the US-led economic warfare campaign against Russia. Sanctions intended to cripple the Russian economy backfired against the very countries that introduced them, with Germany especially suffering from the loss of access to cheap Russian energy that has long been vital for its industry. Furthermore, illegal migrant arrivals in Germany have surged dramatically, with the conflict in Ukraine further complicating the problem.
Hardships caused by the EU are “simply ignored” in the German mainstream press and among the other parties, Blex underscored. As for how receptive ordinary Germans are to the idea of possibly leaving the EU, the AfD lawmaker said that currently there is “no discussion about the EU in the German public,” adding that “any criticism of this is immediately placed in the right-wing extremist corner by the mainstream media and the other parties.”
“Our citizens see the consequences of the insane ecological energy policy and unbridled mass immigration every day. More and more citizens are realizing that this is not only due to our government, but also to the EU,” Christian Blex emphasized.
9 October 2023, 19:06 GMT
Ahead of crucial elections in three eastern states of Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia in September, Weidel’s party is currently experiencing a surge of support. While AfD is expected to win in these three states, overall it has been polling ahead of every other party in Germany except the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), including Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three coalition parties: the Social Democrats, Greens and liberals.
Meanwhile, the approval rating of the governing coalition has sunk to record lows amid the budget crisis, costs of living crisis, and migration woes.
The AfD is leading the polls in five East German states and is polling second nationally at 22%. The party hopes to make gains at both the European Parliamentary elections in June and the regional elections in September. A recent poll revealed that 45% of AfD members would currently vote to leave the EU and only 10% of the German population said they would.
Indeed, “a majority of Germans are likely to reject an exit from the European Union at this point in time,” Dr. Dirk Spaniel said, adding that “this is probably due to the fact that most citizens are not sufficiently aware of the actual costs and the far reaching and often nontransparent political decisions from Brussels.”
“It would probably take time to convince the people in Germany to stand with us in this idea of leaving the European Union. You cannot promote such a thing without having a great majority behind you and probably if we try to do that in Germany, we would have a public vote, as in Britain. So you have to convince the Germans of this idea, if it's necessary, of leaving the European Union,” Dr. Spaniel underscored.
Agreeing with Christian Blex on the vital need to tackle the outstanding migrant issue, Dirk Spaniel told Sputnik this might sway voters on the issue of continuing EU membership.
“The surge of illegal mass immigration is largely due to the European policy of open borders and unequal social systems… And we must save our social system from migrants flocking to our country just to benefit from German taxpayers' money. One of the right measures to do so is by permanently controlling our borders and only letting immigrate highly qualified foreigners who are absolutely willing to integrate, work, pay taxes, speak German and adhere to German values, and who will not take advantage of our social system. This is not possible inside the actual European Union system. This is one thing, which probably would convince German voters, if they would be aware of this,” said Dr.Spaniel.
Germany's 'Dysfunctional System'
Both lawmakers assessed the AfD’s "very good" prospects in the upcoming September elections against the backdrop of the current "dysfunctional" government.
“We have a dysfunctional social system, we have decreasing security in bigger cities and public transport. And we have ever higher energy prices. Not just because of the Russian gas, which has come away due to the government decisions. It's because of the whole policy of raising the cost of energy. And all of this leads to inflation, leads to loss of wealth. And everybody in Germany has a clear view of the future - this will not be solved by the actual government. And more and more people in Germany are considering to try something different,” noted Dirk Spaniel.
After the elections, he believed that the AfD would end up “as the biggest party in the Eastern German elections.”
“The current government has destroyed our country's industrial base in unprecedented ways,” agreed Dr. Christian Blex.
“The Energy policy is directed against the fundamental physical principles. Every new wind turbine and every new photovoltaic system destroys our security of supply and drives up the price of electricity to absurd heights. The abandonment of cheap Russian gas due to US pressure is accelerating the decline of our industry… Everything is becoming more and more expensive and the cost of living is skyrocketing,” Blex stressed.
While government parties are "getting catastrophic results," Alternative for Germany, according to the politician, is the only party that “stands up for the interests of the German worker and the German normal families.”
