German
far-right party adopts radical program promising ‘remigration’
12 January
2025
Berlin, Jan
12 (EFE).- The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party approved an
election program on Sunday that includes promises of border closures and
“remigration.”
After
lengthy debates, the program was unanimously adopted on the second day of the
party’s federal congress in Riesa, eastern Germany, this weekend, where AfD
co-leader Alice Weidel was officially nominated as its candidate for chancellor
on Saturday.
“We are
getting stronger and stronger,” Weidel said at the end of the congress session.
As opposed
to the original draft, the program adopted on Sunday includes the controversial
term “remigration,” used by right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis to describe the
mass deportation of migrants and people with foreign roots after Weidel (who
had previously avoided the term) used it publicly on Saturday.
The AfD
officially claimed that “remigration” only refers to the legal deportation of
migrants in an irregular situation. Yet, in its circles, the term is often used
together with racist iconography.
Among other
things, the program promised to close the borders to migrants and asylum
seekers, a large-scale “deportation offensive” against undocumented migrants,
withdrawal from the Common European Asylum System, and the acquisition of
German citizenship only for children of German parents and in exceptional
cases.
It also
included a ban on the construction of minarets in Germany and the wearing of
the Islamic Hijab (headscarf) in public buildings.
Return to
the national currency
The AfD also
maintained its project of abandoning the euro, although it does not call for an
exit from the European Union, but proposed to transform it or replace it with
an “alliance of European nations” with a common market, which in the long term
would be an alternative to NATO for the defense of the continent.
The program
also promised to lift sanctions on Russia and resume gas imports from that
country. At the same time, delegates rejected a motion to include a
condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A motion to
reintroduce compulsory military service also was approved at the last minute.
This was against the wishes of co-leader Tino Chrupalla, who wants to profile
the AfD as a “peace party.”
“Father,
mother and children”
Although
Weidel’s partner is another woman and has two children with her, the delegates
voted to include in the program that the family consists of “father, mother,
and children” as the basic cell of society.
They also
opposed the mandatory measles vaccination of schoolchildren in Germany.
The congress
approved the creation of a new integrated youth organization within the party,
following growing tensions with the Young Alternative for Germany party, which
was classified as extremist by the German authorities in 2023.
Between 21
and 22%
According to
the latest polls, the AfD enjoys its highest popularity, with a two-point
increase in voting intentions in the last month to 21-22%.
This would
put the party, backed by tycoon Elon Musk, an ally of United States
President-elect Donald Trump, in second place behind Friedrich Merz’s Christian
Democratic Bloc, which is on 30%.
Chancellor
Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and their partners in government, the Greens,
are currently vying for third place with between 13 and 16%, while the Liberals
and the left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance could fall below the 5%
threshold for parliamentary representation. EFE
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