Weidel says Germany needs a full rebuild, from energy policy to the euro

Weidel answered the interviewer's question about whether the German economy needs a few repairs or a new economic model by saying the economy needs to be restructured and rebuilt as a whole, because its parts are also broken. She described the situation as a deep and multifaceted crisis.

She put the energy transition first among the causes. In her account it began under the Merkel government and was continued by successive governments. She said Germany had 19 power plants, most of them modern, that were switched off and partly destroyed, and that the country now has no nuclear plants. She said Germany relies solely on wind and solar power, and that when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine the country depends on neighbours importing energy at very high prices.

According to Weidel, German energy costs for companies and households are the highest in the world, leaving German firms uncompetitive in global markets. She said bankruptcies are rising and companies are either going bankrupt or moving abroad, and added that the burden of bureaucracy on companies is also high.

The interviewer noted that the AfD's 2025 manifesto said Germany should leave the euro, and that most economists consider such an exit catastrophic for German growth. He asked whether Germany should leave the euro, and reported that the party may be rethinking its policy.

Weidel said the claim that the party wants to leave the EU or the euro is a myth. She said the programme calls for reforming the European Union into a community of sovereign states with a free trade area. She opposed a bureaucratic EU Commission that, in her words, interferes with privacy and company production and tells consumers what to buy, and said she sees a democratic deficit in the EU's checks and balances.

When asked about exit threats, she cited David Cameron, who she said forced reforms by threatening to leave the EU, and pointed to Brexit as the example of that path. She said Germany is the main financier of the EU, and that the euro was introduced without German voters being asked. She argued that the euro is not a stable currency because the nation states do not form an optimal currency area, and that Germany should return to a stable currency.

The interviewer said Marine Le Pen has argued for more ECB financing of infrastructure, and noted that Le Pen is leading in French polls and may become president. He asked what Europe would look like if both of them shaped its direction.

Weidel said that Le Pen is pursuing what she thinks is best for France, and that she would do the same in her position. She said Germany is the main financier of the EU while France receives the money, and that Le Pen wants free debt financing even though France is already in a debt crisis with skyrocketing interest rates. She said Germany's own state debt is rising sharply.

The interviewer then asked whether financial markets might react to the two leaders' differing views by causing a European bond market crisis. Weidel agreed that such a crisis is likely.

Weidel said that high debt in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany could produce a bond market crisis, and that Germany's new debt programme has already pushed up interest rates on capital markets. She said the country is heavily indebted and that, over the next three years of the current government, the interest bill would climb to €82bn.

The interviewer noted that Germany currently pays roughly €40bn a year in interest on capital market debt. Weidel said that this figure is set to climb sharply, and that the burden is self-inflicted through what she called stupid policies, such as spending taxpayers' money on climate transition projects.

The interviewer pointed out that the AfD's manifesto proposed higher pension spending and tax cuts, both of which would add to the deficit, and questioned whether the programme was fiscally frugal. The interviewer added that the numbers were hard to follow.

The interviewer asked whether state pension costs would rise under an AfD government. Weidel said no, and explained that the party would lift the taxes on the second and third pillars, meaning company pensions and private pension schemes, making them tax-free and tax-deductible.

She argued that Germany has the highest taxes and social security contributions, which burden individual workers, and said the state must lower taxes while cutting its own spending. She also cited the cost of what she called illegal, out-of-control mass migration and the disturbances to public order.

The interviewer said voters have trouble seeing how lower taxes and higher pension spending add up to a smaller deficit, and moved on to the question of defence spending.

Weidel said the AfD is calling for immediate peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, and that the peace should serve Ukraine's interests as well as Russia's security interests. She argued that Germany's Ukraine policy endangers the German state and could make Germany a target, and said Germany has spent more than €100bn on the war.

When the interviewer asked whether Russia is a threat to NATO members, Weidel replied that the question is whether German foreign policy serves the national interest, and said the current government's policy is harmful. She cited sanctions packages, and said that while Germany imposes them, the US president is discussing the supply of oil and gas with Vladimir Putin, which she said Germany also needs to lower its energy costs.

She said that the war is not Germany's war and that it is very dangerous and costly, especially for Germany.

The interviewer referred to a foiled attack on Leipzig airport that was attributed to Russia. Weidel said she was not an eyewitness and was not an advocate of either pro-Ukrainian or pro-Russian policy, and that what matters to her is what evidence exists.

She said she had not seen any evidence on the drone attack presented in parliament. She described the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines as a state terror attack on German infrastructure, valued at nearly €30bn, which cut Germany and Europe off from Russian gas. She said the facts about Nord Stream are being ignored by politicians.

The interviewer responded that evidence was also missing on the other side, asked her to step back, and described Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and its continued bombardment of Ukrainian cities, which he said he had witnessed in Kyiv.

Weidel said the AfD criticised Russia's attack on Ukraine because Ukraine is a sovereign country. She said the current situation is terrible, citing the deaths of people, families losing sons, damage to infrastructure and refineries, and skyrocketing diesel prices, as well as high security risks for European countries.

She said a German politician must judge any foreign policy by whether it serves the national interest, and argued that continuing to finance a war she considers already lost is wrong. Asked whether she would accept Ukraine ceasing to exist as an independent country, she said that if Ukraine is to exist as an independent state it will need support.

She said that Ukraine cannot win against Russia. The interviewer pointed out that Ukraine has offered ceasefires, and Weidel said Putin is the one who refuses them. The interviewer asked for evidence that Putin is interested in peace, and Weidel responded by asking the same of Zelensky.

Weidel said drones fired into Russia's interior, destroying refineries and buildings near Moscow, are a huge provocation. She said the strategy is very risky, particularly when aimed at a country with nuclear weapons, and that it does not help end the war.

She argued that the US has the Atlantic between it and the conflict, so the war is not in its security interest, whereas Europeans are directly affected and should have a major interest in ending the war. She said the AfD wants to press the Ukrainian president to end the fighting.

Weidel said the government is doing nothing to send Syrians back to Syria. She cited a remark by the Syrian foreign minister that Syrian citizens are a strategic asset in Germany, and claimed that no one has been sent back as a result. She said 100 per cent of Syrians should return because the war in Syria has ended, and criticised the government for flying Afghans into the country.

She linked rising crime since 2015, which she attributed to the border opening, to Syrians and Afghans, whom she described as the main groups among the worst crimes. She also called for detaining criminals and religious extremist leaders. She said Ukrainians too would have to leave when the war ends, which she estimated would affect four to five million people.

The interviewer cited about 100,000 German doctors over the age of 60, roughly a quarter of the total, who are due to retire soon, and asked whether it makes sense to send back Syrian doctors given the shortage. He said the shortage is true across many aspects of Germany's ageing population.

Weidel said the asylum system should not be confused with skilled workers who come on working visas and pay taxes, who she said are welcome. She said her earlier remarks concerned people who are present unlawfully because the law is not enforced, and not qualified professionals such as Syrian professionals.

She argued that Germany needs to attract professionals, but that it cannot do so while crime, high taxes and bureaucracy deter them. She added that thousands of qualified Germans are leaving for the US, Switzerland and elsewhere, citing taxes, housing costs and safety.

The interviewer quoted the Saxony AfD manifesto's statement that Germany should not rely on 'culturally alien skilled workers', and described the phrase as a dog whistle for Muslim doctors. He asked whether Weidel disavows it.

Weidel called it a good question and said she would clarify the sentence. She gave the example of Muslim-descended police officers in Berlin who she said refused to shake the hands of female colleagues and refused to take part in swimming exercises that women had used. She said a doctor must understand the patient, shake hands, and not regard women as inferior, and called the equality of men and women essential in a freedom-loving society.

Asked whether this meant Germany should have fewer Muslims, she said no, and that she had only named examples where integration does not work. She added that many Muslims suffer under such conditions and that many are well integrated.

The interviewer said Weidel describes herself as a libertarian conservative, but that the 252-page Saxony manifesto contains measures that he said do not sound libertarian and sound extreme. He said many people fear the AfD is far right and that the manifesto's proposals support that concern.

He cited the manifesto's call for removing the children of refugees and disabled children from school classrooms, its call for a 'Heimatkunde' study of the country's history with more Bismarck and less Hitler, and a proposed punishment for offending the German state. He said that these proposals suggest a party that wants to use the state actively to create a particular kind of Germany.

Weidel said the party is calling for common-sense policies and that she would not describe it as far right or extremist.

The interviewer quoted the manifesto's statement that an intact family of mother, father and children is proven to be the best prerequisite for healthy child development, and noted that Weidel's own family situation does not match this description. Weidel said her wife is Swiss, not Sri Lankan-born, and that the issue is a fun fact.

Weidel said she can advocate for a family comprising a man, a woman and children, because she considers it a model in which over 90 per cent of children grow up, and that she signed the manifesto and the party tolerates families like hers. She said she is liberal on lifestyles and that the state should not interfere in every aspect of life.

She said she opposes queer and gender policy, and criticised a law passed under the last government that lets young people change their legal gender once a year, which she called ridiculous and disturbing for teenagers. She argued that the country needs to return to normal policy.

The interviewer said he is pretty sure Weidel is a libertarian, but that the party contains small but clear neo-Nazi elements. He cited two convictions for using Nazi slogans and reports that four advisers to the party's Saxony-Anhalt leader were part of a banned neo-Nazi youth movement.

Weidel said the accusations are completely unfounded. Asked to categorically deny such elements and say that anyone found to be one would be thrown out, she said that this is not the case and that anyone found to be so would be expelled. She said the slogan 'Germany first' is not a Nazi slogan, and that the framing is used against the party to harm its reputation.

She said the party has no extremists and is not an extreme party, and that the framing is unserious and harmful to its reputation.

Weidel said the AfD has reached over 30 per cent nationally, putting the chancellor's party, the CDU, below 18 per cent, a gap of 12 to 13 points. The interviewer noted that her goal of over 40 per cent would still not be enough to govern alone, and that other parties refuse to work with the AfD, a situation known as the firewall.

Weidel said the firewall is harmful to the CDU, which she said has slipped to around 17 per cent, and to the country, because voters keep choosing coalitions of the CDU and the AfD. She said the firewall is an undemocratic tool that strengthens left-leaning parties that impose high taxes.

Asked whether she would compromise, she said there are no compromises to be made on the main points she has laid out, because the country and its people deserve it. She said the CDU has to move first, and that if it does not move quickly it will perish.