Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) has warned about the potential foreign policy consequences should the AfD participate in a government. This comes based on the text of a speech Wadephul is set to deliver on Friday evening at the Stresemann Society in Mainz.
In the speech text concerning the AfD, he states that the party “flirts with a Russian dictator, thereby trampling on the interests of the country it claims to represent.” He asserts, “Whoever is for Putin is not for Germany.”
Wadephul criticizes the AfD, accusing it of campaigning against German interests and against the foundations of German democracy. According to the minister, the party fosters uncertainty and poisons the pursuit of effective political action with slogans promising seemingly simple solutions.
The Foreign Minister perceives a fundamental contradiction between the values of the CDU and the tenets of the AfD. He points out that his own party emerged from “the experience of the darkest hour” in German history and from the shared principle of “Never again.” This principle, Wadephul explains, gave rise to a “commitment to Europe, to Western alignment, to the transatlantic relationship, and to renouncing nationalist fantasies of dominance.”
The text further declares, “For me, it is clear: the AfD does not share this commitment.” He adds, “It is not a competitor like any other. It calls into question the basic convictions of Germany upon which the Federal Republic and also the CDU were founded.” According to Wadephul, the AfD jeopardizes “what our foreign policy strength is today,” namely “trust in the world.” He concludes that “a Germany where the AfD obtains power is weaker in this world.”
