Germany needs to restore relations with Russia for the sake of the nation’s economic well-being, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has said. Antagonizing Moscow has brought the country nothing but trouble, she told Bild tabloid in an interview published on Sunday.
The AfD wants Germany to have “very good relations with our European neighbors” and with great powers as well, the politician said, adding that “it includes Russia.”
“Until two years ago, we sourced cheap natural gas from Russia through the Nord Stream,” Weidel said, referring to the Russian undersea pipelines delivering natural gas to Germany that were sabotaged via a series of explosions in autumn 2022.
Berlin has since taken steps to put an end to Russian energy imports as part of its EU sanctions policy, which is linked to the Ukraine conflict.
According to Weidel, the introduction of restrictions was a mistake since it primarily damaged the German economy. “What we want is to put an end to the sanctions policy,” the politician said, claiming her country currently has “the highest energy prices in the world,” which make the nation “no longer competitive.”
According to the Statista online data aggregator, Germany had the fifth highest electricity prices for households in the world as of March 2024, behind Italy, Ireland, Denmark and Belgium.
When repeatedly pressed by Bild on whether her party wants to restore “good relations” with a nation that supposedly threatens Germany, Weidel replied that Berlin has also been aggressive towards Moscow in its rhetoric over the past years.
The German government was climbing up “the escalation spiral,” the politician said, adding that Berlin’s politicians used belligerent rhetoric and provided weapons to Kiev during its conflict against Moscow.
“German tanks have been rolling against Russia again” for the first time since World War II, she said, referring to the heavy armor supplied to Ukraine as part of the country’s military assistance.
When asked about why she refrains from criticizing Russia’s role in the conflict, Weidel said that Berlin and Moscow should “sit down at the negotiating table” instead. “You have to talk to each other,” she stated, adding that her party was calling on Germany to join the peace negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict. That would be the “only serious policy,” she added.
The AfD has been gaining popular support over the past months despite being ostracized by the other major German political forces, which accuse it of being “far-right.” The party enjoys the backing of between 20% and 21% of the population a week ahead of the snap parliamentary elections, and is projected to come in second behind only the conservative Christian Democratic Union, this week’s polls suggest.
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