Alice
Weidel
55th
Anniversary Élysée Treaty
German
Bundestag, January 22, 2018, Plenarprotokoll 19/9, pp. 700-701
[Translated by Todd Martin]
[Alice Weidel is a chairman of the
Alternative für Deutschland in the German Bundestag. Her speech was preceded by
speeches by other Bundestag members referring to the Élysée Treaty as a basis
for the present day policies of the European Union. President François de Rugy
and members of the French National Assembly were in attendance. Emmanuel Macron
is president of the French Republic. Martin Schulz is a former president of the
European Parliament.]
Esteemed
Mr. President, esteemed Mr. President Rugy, dear colleagues, honorable
colleagues of the National Assembly.
Germany
as beneficiary of the euro – stop at last this nonsense, stop this fairy tale!
You understand nothing of economics, altogether nothing!
Today
in the upper house will be held a celebration of the signing of a treaty which
will be completely misinterpreted by you. The signers, Konrad Adenauer and
Charles de Gaulle, regarded the Élysée Treaty as a German-French friendship
agreement, a purely bilateral treaty as consideration given by the young
Federal Republic for joining NATO. Especially de Gaulle kept in view a Europe
of nations, honorable ladies and gentlemen. You however quite knowingly put
forward a biased account when you take the treaty as pretext to establish a
centralized European super-state to which the principles of power-sharing and
democratic participation are fully foreign.
No
wonder then that the parties which have for so long been sitting here prefer to
arrange among themselves a common resolution and have completely and thoroughly
ignored the AfD delegation and thereby 13 percent of the electorate. For that,
shame on you!
It
is correct that the European unity which began with the 1951 coal and steel
union was a retort to the horrifying catastrophe of the preceding century, to
chauvinism and national socialism.
[Britta
Hasselman (Bundnis 90/ Die Grünen)]: Do not play the role each week, Frau
Weidel!
Simply
listen, then perhaps even you can begin to learn something. Just keep quiet.
To
the generations which have had to experience war and ruin, the European peace
project shines as hope for a better future. Yet the original vision of a Europe
of sovereign nations of equal rights was quickly swept aside. There are powers
which have wanted to construct a political reality out of an
irreversible-as-possible intertwining of the national economies. A great European
who understood the error of this way was the economist Wilhelm Röpke. He once
stated – I quote:
…To define the
essence of Europe to be a unity in variety and thence to centralize all…is the
betrayal of Europe, even in the economic area.
End
quote.
At
the latest, this betrayal was struck with the introduction of the euro. Many
economists had issued warnings prior to this introduction. It was clear to them
it would lead to a powerful redistribution by means of public capital
transfers, the result of the lack of currency exchange to correct disturbances
in the balance of payments. Contrary to all economic common sense, the euro was
nevertheless introduced. Henceforth, it will be permanently and illegally
rescued and artificially kept alive by all means, by money dilution, by zero
and negative interest rates, by asset price inflation, to the sorrow of every
European citizen whose real purchasing power and savings melts dramatically
away under your policy, so that you can relieve debtor nations of their debts.
And that I call an expropriation, honorable ladies and gentlemen!
That
is also why the EU is stuck in an acceptance and legitimacy crisis. Foremost in
southern Europe, and in France as well, this has led to higher unemployment and
to consequently heavier social spending. And the spiral you wish to further
spin. That is no good testimony for a project which even today perceives itself
to be a guarantee of peace and freedom, especially when it is the German taxpayer
who at the end of the day must stand by and pay for each and all.
Emmanuel
Macron’s socialist, planned economy proposals – this I want to say with all
clarity –
for
example, a European unemployment insurance, a banking union or a common budget,
speak a language which we in the AfD definitely reject, honorable ladies and
gentlemen. Germany cannot be the paymaster of Europe.
[Martin Schulz (SPD)]: That is German nationalist drivel.
Not
only is the domestic tranquility threatened, one must fear for freedom itself.
The strategy of faits accomplis destroys the democratic right of the eligible
citizen to openly debate and freely vote on the decisive questions of the
future. At the same time, an arrogant bureaucracy intervenes in nearly aspect
of peoples’ lives. The self-determined man who takes in hand his own
responsibility and claims his freehold vis-à-vis the state will be forced
increasingly onto the defensive. That is a striking regression from what
concerns civil rights, democracy and the political culture in general.
Therefore,
finally must Europe again return to its roots, to be a free continent, a unity
in variety maintained by the rule of law, honorable ladies and gentlemen.
