Germany’s AfD Party Pushes for German Exit from EU
The AfD’s demand “marks the first time any party has called for Dexit.”
Germany’s biggest opposition party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), is pushing for the country to leave the European Union ahead of the EU parliament election. According to the manifesto drafted for the EU election scheduled for late May, the AfD called for Germany to leave the EU if party’s demands for drastic reforms were not met. The reforms proposed by the party include abolishing the EU Parliament and giving control back to the national governments.
AfD spokesman Jörg Meuthen called for a “Europe of nations which works together in peaceful cooperation” as opposed to a centralized Europe run from Brussels. The position taken by the AfD are similar to the recent demands made by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party. “What we propose is a quiet transition from the European Union to the European alliance of nations,” the French opposition leader said.
Initially, the AfD party delegates proposed a time table for the German withdrawal from the EU by 2024. The party leadership, however, diluted the demand, urging Brussels to carry out a reform program or face a “Dexit” campaign. A similar campaign by the UK Independence Party had forced the British government to hold an “in-out” referendum in 2016. The AfD’s manifesto demand “marks the first time any party has called for ‘Dexit’– a German departure from the EU in the mould of Brexit,” British newspaper The Guardian noted.
In September 2016, the AfD won 13 percent of the vote and emerged as the third-largest group in the German parliament. Amid growing migrant crime and series of Islamist terror attacks, the party continues to surge in polls.
German state broadcaster ZDF reported the demands put forward by the AfD:
The AfD considers Germany’s exit from the EU unavoidable if the block does not manage to change radically in a foreseeable period. In the party’s European conference in Riesa, Saxony State, the delegates agreed to a manifesto that states: “If the reform concept for the existing EU-system is not enacted within a reasonable time, we will see the necessity — as the last option — for Germany to leave [the EU], the dissolution of the union in an orderly manner, and creation of a new European economic community and community of interests.”
The main proposal, [presented to] the AfD manifesto committee, had called for a “Dexit” after a legislative period [within next 4 years]. Many speakers explained that the EU cannot be reformed. The AfD chairperson Alexander Gauland cautioned not to put a clear deadline for a “Dexit.” (…) Gauland said that the chances of relegating the EU to a purely economic community are very bright. This however will need more time than one legislative period. [Translation by the author]
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle summed up the AfD pre-election demands, saying the party calls for “a different European bloc, which would focus on economic cooperation and joint interests of European countries. Their manifesto also opposes the EU having a joint defense and foreign policy.”
The prospects of a Brexit-style campaign rattled the mainstream German parties. “It would be an unmitigated disaster for Germany,” the vice president of the German parliament Thomas Oppermann said. “The EU is very beneficial for our country, ensuring peace, protecting democracy and freedom.”
“With the AfD, we would have conditions in Germany like those in Britain. It is Germany’s Brexit Party,” said Manfred Weber, the leading member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party and head of the conservative bloc in the EU parliament.
The plan for dismantling the EU power structure, as presented by the AfD, could be a death knell to the transnational project. AfD’s “terms of reform go so far that almost nothing of the present-day EU would survive it,” German Green party lawmaker Sven Giegold complained.
A Brexit-style campaign in Germany, the biggest net contributor to the EU treasury, could seriously disrupt bloc’s ongoing project of bolstering its centralized bureaucracy at the cost of sovereign European nation states. With leading opposition parties in France and Germany, Le Pen’s National Rally and the AfD, taking similar positions, the EU faces a formidable challenge this election season.
[Cover image via YouTube]
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Germany will not be allowed to leave the EU. It would cause a collapse of the whole concept of an EU. Brussels will work to undermine them by any means possible, with the active collusion of France, which is perfectly happy to force Germany into an arrangement that is not to its benefit.
Germany must find somewhere to sell the 50% of their GDP that is exports. They pretty much engineered the EU for that purpose. They managed to completely hollow out the manufacturing base of the entire southern EU. They don’t manufacture anything in Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. anymore. This forces the Southern EU to buy manufactured goods from Germany.
And, the Finance Minister recently acknowledged that the good times are over with respect to lots of capital and tax receipts. The massive wave of baby boomer retirement means these largest group of capital and tax generators in Germany is evaporating.
Giving up sovereignty to EU bureaucrats was a huge mistake. Allowing Muslims into any western country is another huge mistake.
A purely economic cooperation treaty is the way to go.
The only other issue is how are they going to get rid of those who do not assimilate and how are they going to deal with Muslim reproduction as a weapon issue?
Bringing Refugees into the Country was supposed to address the aging population crises. The idea was that as baby boomers retired, new immigrants would come in at the bottom of the economy as taxpayers and productive members of society.
But, the experience is that those refugees are not producing. They are consuming. And, they are placing an increasing strain on the falling tax revenues.
As itv says, The Fatherland will never be allowed to leave the EU.
Well, the EU has lost England, and several others are looking to desert. I think the EU is doomed.
a “Europe of nations which works together in peaceful cooperation”
What a weird concept. Not a lot of historical precedent for such a thing.
Conservative women are better looking by far than socialist sows.
It makes sense for the EU to breakup. However, Germany is one of the primary countries that benefits from the EU structure. They won’t leave it. They are a huge exporter to the EU, they won’t let it happen.
So, unfortunately for AfD, its a losing position in the short-term in Germany.
Longer-term, though, another financial crisis will expose the rot at the center of the EU common currency and the banking weakness that supports the EU today. The issues with open borders will grow, and Eurocrat regulations will still hurt Germany.
Not clear that enough of the citizenry sees that right now.
rather than importing Muslims, countries which face population decline would be better off changing tax policy to encourage higher birth rates by their own people. They might even go so far as encouraging some women or couples to have very large families. Money talks, and this would avoid damage to their gene pool.
This would cost less than having all those inferior Muslims who think they are superior on the dole, with their no go zones, cranking out 7-8 babies.
It has to happen sooner or later. First Britain, then Germany, with several other countries watching to see what happens before making their move.
1) Brexit has probably been stifled today.
2) Does anyone know if the German Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland or the French Constitution of the 5th Republic contain provisions for a referendum, either at the behest of the government or by popular petition? In the absence of such there is really no practical way to force the Imperial Powers to leave the EU.
3) It leaves some sort of political violence as the only alternatives. When the government believes it is superior to the people in all things, that is the way it goes. And yes, that is a lesson for our UniParty that they will ignore as long as possible.
Subotai Bahadur
“1) Brexit has probably been stifled today.”
Possibly. Certainly if the majority of Britain’s public gets their news from the BBC that may well be the result. It seems the BBC is most likely in favor of a new referendum hoping to cancel Brexit permanently.
I am not predicting the end of the EU but the EU is not going to go forward as a legimate Trojan Horse for Gloablist and Gloabl government. If it happens it will have to drag significant parts of every population and in doing so will become more USSR in who supports it and who hates it.
Dexit? That’s pretty uninspired.
Surely somebody can come up with something better than that. Maybe Deutsch Re-treat?