Alexander Gauland
Nation
AfD Kompakt, March 18, 2020
[Alexander Gauland is honorary national
chairman of the Alternative für Deutschland as well as a chairman of the AfD
delegation in the Bundestag.]
Now
in times of acute crisis will be applied numerous measures which until recently
were asserted to be unfeasible. Borders can once again be controlled and defended.
The foreign sale of leading German technologies can now be hindered, as
indicated by the example of CureVac. And no one any longer demands that first
of all must a European solution be awaited. The present crisis shows us with
terrifying clarity that only a strong, capable, democratic nation-state can be a
reliable power [verlässliche Grösse].
And
this the other European states essentially again have grasped more quickly than
Germany and initiated the appropriate measures. In many European countries, it
is deeply rooted that European cooperation ideally is a good supplement to the
nation-state but nevertheless can never replace it. Particularly it is the
Germans who must now sorrowfully re-apply this understanding.
My
hope is, in this country, the lesson learned is that policy in the national
interest is not chauvinistic but necessary and to demand this is not radical
but reasonable.
[Translated by Todd Martin]
