Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Tino Chrupalla said Germany should reconsider its NATO membership if the US-dominated alliance fails to take into account the interests of European countries, “including the interests of Russia”. “Europe was forced to implement the interests of the United States. We reject this,” Tino Chrupalla told the German daily Welt. “NATO is not currently a defense alliance. A defense community must accept and respect the interests of all European countries, including the interests of Russia,” added Mr. Chrupalla.
“If NATO is not able to ensure this, Germany must ask itself to what extent this alliance is still useful to us,” added the AfD co-leader. The far-right party is credited with 18-19% of voting intentions in the polls before the early general elections which should be held on February 23, following the vote of confidence planned for Monday and which should lead to the dissolution of the Bundestag. Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself kicked off this dissolution by requesting a vote of confidence after the breakup of his government coalition in November.
The AfD’s score places the party ahead of Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, credited with 16-17%, and behind the conservative CDU-CSU bloc, leading in the polls with 31-32% of voting intentions. The AfD is unlikely to form a government because other parties have ruled out cooperation with the far-right party. But the party could still achieve notable electoral success, after a spectacular victory in Thuringia, one of the regions of formerly communist eastern Germany.
The far-right party sharply criticized Germany’s military support for Ukraine and called for a rapid end to the war provoked by Russia in 2022. “The German government must finally come to the point of wanting to put end the war,” said Mr. Chrupalla, whose colleague Alice Weidel will be at the top of the AfD list as the party’s candidate for chancellor.
