Conversation with Alice Weidel, president of the alternate for Germany
Mrs. Weidel, thank you for agreeing to talk with The American Conservative. In a fresh interview with Bloomberg, you mentioned that you are a libertarian on taxation and war issues in Ukraine. Yet in Germany you are considered to be a far-right policy due to your position on immigration and your position on the EU. To clarify, are you in favour of staying in the EU or of leaving the EU due to the fact that it is increasingly unreformable?
– I must thank you for the chance to talk to you about these matters. For the record, neither I nor my organization are right-wing extremists. You request to know that in Germany this accusation is the conflict cry of the left, which dominates public discourse. The Left doesn't even think it's essential to supply evidence to support this accusation. No substance what, in their eyes everything that does not want to be like them is "right-wing extremism."
Regarding the question of exiting the EU: this is truly a simple calculation. Germany does not request the EU to survive. However, it is mostly the opposite. However, the EU is acting as if it were the exact opposite. They act as if we, Germany, had to put aside our vital interests in order not to endanger the "European project". It's a grotesque distortion. Either the EU learns to take our national interests into account or it's gone.
The decision on how Germany behaves so depends solely on the EU. But 1 thing is certain: the EU must completely depart from the credo of the past, that strong Germany is simply a weak Europe, and so Germany should not defend its national interests for the benefit of all. The fact is, this is historical nonsense. We are and will always stay the heart of Europe. On the day that heart stops beating, Europe will die.
Your co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, late said that Germany is being forced to follow American orders and that NATO is not an alliance in the interests of Europe. In fact, however, we have seen on the 1 hand that most Americans are not willing to proceed to affect the US or finance the war in Ukraine, and on the another hand that most Europeans, from the Baltic countries to Poland and the United Kingdom and France, as well as the EU's superstructure, want more support for Ukraine. How do we deal with this contradiction?
– Things are a small complicated, so if you'll excuse me if I make a small digression. The United States is undoubtedly a unique planet superpower, which has expanded its tremendous influence on the full world. This is what we usually call an empire. However, it is simply a unusual empire: an empire that governs the planet from Monday to Wednesday, but does not want to do it again from Thursday to Sunday. This is an eternal conflict between expansionists and isolationists, which has most likely been going on since the U.S. gained independence.
This makes it a small hard for another nations, especially us Germans. On the 1 hand, the American leadership complains about, for example, German energy policy, which – from a geopolitical point of view does not request to be explained – wants to scope an agreement with Russia. What chaotic anger did Nord Stream build on the American side? How dare we. We all inactive have images of president Joe Biden in our head, who in an unspoken way publically humiliate Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Nord Stream case. Well, Nord Stream was immobilized during the war. He fears the current German national government not to point a finger at the perpetrator, speaking for itself. Is that what the United States wants? Germany as a colony? A colony that has no right to decide its own energy policy? A nation that has no right to follow its own way wherever it leads? The United States can do all this as a past winner. But they gotta want it, too, and they gotta say it so that we can adapt to it.
Because we Germans are a defeated nation. “Everything that has lost its independency has besides lost its ability to interfere over time and freely specify its content,” writes German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte. specified men "from now on have no time of their own, but number their years according to the events and periods of abroad nations and empires." We Germans have been surviving in this situation for a long time, definitely in favour of the United States. But we, as individuals, have benefited too, I can't deny it.
Being a slave besides has its advantages. The noblest right of a servant is not to participate in the battles of his master, but to enjoy peace. But this doesn't like American leaders either. In many wars of the last 30 years, in Europe, in the mediate East, we were expected to participate in all of them at the request of the US. But why would we do that? We don't gotta fight wars anymore, we've already said goodbye to history. For this reason, we have disfigured our military beyond recognition.
But now that we have reached the absolute point of nullity, our political leaders have discovered enthusiasm for war. Warriorism has become a state-imposed madness that has not been seen since the end of the last planet war. The leader in opposition to the CDU is now ahead of the ruling parties in who can issue the loudest, most vulgar cry of war. All this despite complete military incompetence. What we see here is truly and truly chaotic sexual fantasies of impotent people. We'll finish this grotesque farce as shortly as possible.
We will coordinate our actions on this issue with the United States. But to that end, the United States needs to know what kind of planet they want to live in. due to the fact that if this is an empire, you gotta fight for it yourself, sacrifice your blood and your good. Don't anticipate slaves to take over this fight for you. It's impossible. There will be no specified thing. A slave who fights is constantly demanding freedom as a reward. But freedom besides means that people will go their own way and search their own happiness. If they don't, they're slaves. And slaves don't fight. Don't accuse them of that.
Therefore, erstwhile president Donald Trump demands that Germany take work for its own safety in the future, it should besides be clear about the full consequences. That we will kindly hear his concerns about Nord Stream and our energy supply, but that we will make our own decisions and that he must accept them whether he likes it or not. We Germans have lost this spirit of freedom; another nations have fought for it and preserved it, like the Baltic countries you mentioned.
We assure these Baltic countries of your full support. But tell them they must quit control of their energy supply; American corporations will decide that in the future. Tell them that their borders must be lifted; Anyone who enters their country and settles will be regulated by the EU in the future. You can be certain that under specified conditions, these free - loving nations would immediately cease calling for support. The contradiction you think you're identifying has a lot to do with the contradictory image of yourself in the United States.
Elon Musk supported you, as did Nigel Farage in the UK. Are we witnessing the emergence of a Europe-wide "technology" right? If so, what challenges do we face?
– We are very grateful for this support. I would not describe this as the emergence of a "general European technological right". In fact, the political left has built a immense monopoly on public opinion for many decades. This is happening to a greater degree in Germany than in the US, primarily due to the fact that there are much more state-controlled institutions dominated by the left. For example, we have a public broadcaster, which is funded with EUR 8 billion per year. This is simply a global phenomenon. That is why we should talk about "tech-left". But this monopoly is falling apart.
Nowadays, everyone can produce their own programs with small effort and make them available to a possible million-dollar audience. If we add an entrepreneurial genius like Elon Musk, with his burning love of freedom of speech, then Goliath's eight-billion-euro bag will no longer be able to form public opinion in the way the left-wing people want. This has little to do with any "technological law" than with the specified freedom of speech. Leftists seldom have arguments, just insulting their opponents. That was adequate so far. But president Donald Trump's inspiring triumph showed that the monopoly is breaking down. This is the origin of the scandalous anger of the EU's elite on Musk. They fear us, they fear freedom. First of all, they fear freedom of speech.
From Giorgia Meloni in Italy to Le Pens in France, we have witnessed action to gain power. If you gotta form any coalition, even the least likely, in Germany, what issues are your organization willing to compromise on?
– We don't gotta compromise. The only German organization that is inactive ahead of us in the polls is the CDU. Why? due to the fact that the CDU is simply copying our organization program as its own postulates for an election campaign. It's truly incredible, but it's truly actual erstwhile it comes to individual formulas. Of course, they don't want to implement it. It's just a lie. The CDU ruled out the coalition with us, so only the left. possibly the CDU will one more time betray its constituents, as it has done many times before. But I think this time it will be their last betrayal. due to the fact that now there is an alternate for Germany, whether we get the majority or not. possibly the CDU will take 1 last chance and enter the coalition with us. Then we will simply realize what the CDU itself demanded in the election campaign. Either way, we will impose our will.
There are besides discussions on the remilitarisation of Germany and NATO reforms. Could you make your position and position clear to the American public?
– The request for reforms is enormous. You must know that we most likely have the most inefficient armed forces in the world. It barely matters which country would attack us; We'd be defeated by almost everyone. erstwhile Ukraine requested weapons from Germany after the Russian invasion, we initially only provided her with helmets. The Ukrainian authorities thought we were going to insult them. But actually, we couldn't tell you any more. What we have delivered to Ukraine since then is inactive functioning weapon systems from our warehouses. But now we can't. Everything's almost worn out.
It is astonishing that we are already spending more than EUR 50 billion a year on the defence budget. This is at least 2 thirds of the Russian defence budget. This situation is truly surreal. We can't afford to spend so much money on so little. Yes, the AfD-led government will importantly increase the defence budget, but we will besides usage that money more wisely. This complete inefficiency is simply a real problem. Thus the German armed forces are not our only troubled child. The same situation is in the education system, for example. We are choking in all areas of life due to paralysing, money-consuming bureaucracy.
NATO is presently in the process of redefining itself. We look forward to seeing where the fresh American president will go. We cannot say much about it ourselves; It will make over the next fewer years. But 1 thing is certain: the erstwhile NATO had a very strong division of work. Various nationalities took on various tasks, and we Germans provided ourselves with a place on stage. As I said, it worked well as long as the United States was willing to keep its leadership in Europe. For example, if the United States focuses more on the Pacific now, it will gotta change.
Then individual work will be on the agenda. But our armed forces are not prepared for that. We have given logistics a completely unhealthy advantage over combat forces. Therefore, we cannot carry out large military operations on our own. German politicians like to sale it to abroad countries as pacifism. But in my eyes, a pacifist is individual who could wage war, but does not, and alternatively desperately seeks peace due to the fact that he loves it. On the another hand, a man who hopes for peace due to the fact that he cannot defend himself is not a pacifist. He's just a snowman who hopes for the longest possible winter.
For: American Consetvative’
Photo profile fb Alice Weidel
