Siegbert Droese, March 6, 2019, EU

Siegbert Droese

EU

AfD Kompakt, March 6, 2019

[Siegbert Droese is an Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from the eastern German state of Saxony. He is a hotel and restaurant entrepreneur. He here criticizes recent remarks by Manfred Weber, the CSU politician from Bavaria who is expected to become the new president of the European Commission following the European parliamentary elections scheduled for this coming May. Weber has threatened the expulsion of the Fidesz party of Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban from the EVP, the European Peoples Party, the center-right party of the European Parliament of which the CSU and Fidesz are members.]

Is this the new style of the EU? Is this Europe’s new start, proclaimed by Macron? The tone in the EU becomes ever more course; between Brussels and Warsaw, between Weber and Orban, between Salvini and Macron. So who is still surprised by Brexit?

The EU must become a world power, continually affirming a common European foreign policy and common values. And yet some of the leading officials of the EU cannot speak to one another like reasonable men! Hungary is no rogue state, no Iran or North Korea which supposedly must be disciplined. Weber’s ultimatum is an unforced error, and not least for the EVP which will obviously require every vote after the European elections to assist its lead candidates to power.

Hungary is not obliged to permit, in Hungary, American universities which confer U.S. diplomas and which on a daily basis make propaganda evidently for the overthrow of Orban. It happens that a Bavarian politician, who otherwise vehemently defends federalism in German education policy, wants to make prescriptions for other countries’ colleges and universities.

In the EU’s entire push against Hungary, there is no thought of aim or variety. In tone, Weber has played himself false and he has damaged the EU. Even before he is in office, Weber has thereby now disqualified himself from the Brussels post after which he is striving.

[Translated by Todd Martin]

Alexander Gauland, March 4, 2019, Politics

Alexander Gauland

Politics

AfD Kompakt, March 4, 2019

[Alexander Gauland is a national chairman of the Alternative für Deutschland as well as a chairman of the AfD delegation in the German Bundestag. He here responds to recent public statements by Volkswagen executive Hiltrud Werner referring to the AfD’s relative popularity amongst working people in eastern Germany as being a “problem”.]

…Frau Werner errs. The high approval of the AfD among employees is not a problem for eastern Germany but a great opportunity for urgently required political renewal. The VW manager’s statements show that we in the AfD Bundestag delegation are relevant for a great many and the other national parties accordingly are evidently doing much that is wrong.

Instead of allowing herself to be hitched to the political cart of the old parties, Frau Werner should preferably rejoice that so many employees, disillusioned with the politics of the old parties, are turning to the AfD. That will prevent the regression of these frustrated voters back into the camp of the non-voters. That makes clear how enlivening for democracy is the AfD.


[Translated by Todd Martin]

Beatrix von Storch, February 21, 2019, Abortion Advertisement

Beatrix von Storch

Abortion Advertisement

German Bundestag, February 21, 2019, Plenarprotokoll 19/83, pp. 9742-9743

[Beatrix von Storch is an Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from Berlin. She is a lawyer and here responds to a recent proposal by the government to ease restrictions on the advertisement of abortion in Germany.]

Herr President. Ladies and gentlemen.

Dear colleagues of the Democratic and Social Union. We can now indeed conclusively dispense with the “Christian”. After marriage for all, you now also capitulate on the defense of life. Even a capitulation in consultation is a capitulation. That you put a highly sensitive legal statute through the first reading, the committee referral and the second reading within one week is nothing other than an insolence. Obviously the coalition must clear away such an issue that appears bad for both parties.

            Michael Frieser (CDU/CSU): You could have come to the hearings.

The SPD for the moment dreads the break up of the coalition; it is too weak for new elections. And for the Union it is simply about the hold on power; for that they must renounce their own values, even when there is indeed nothing left of their own values.

What remains on the table is a legal issue that disturbs the heart of our constitutional order like scarcely any other. The federal constitutional court has in many decisions, the latest in 1993, asserted the following: Unborn life does not develop into a person, but as a person, and indeed from the beginning. The unborn person has a proper right to life from the beginning.

            Niema Movassat (Linke): You are reading from the false paragraphs!

And human dignity belongs to the unborn, from the beginning. On that account, according to the judgments of the federal constitutional court, abortion is illegal and is exempt only according to widely decided prerequisites. On that account, the court has also decided that the obligatory counseling must always be directed towards life. It should save life and avoid abortion.

Briefly, section 218, which is closely related with section 219 – you will recognize the similarity – is of the indispensable core material of our constitutional order.

            Ulle Schauws (Bündnis90/Grünen): That is not true!

He who wants to do away with or eliminate it is beyond the pale of the constitutional order. I demand that the Federal Office for Defense of the Constitution place under observation those organizations advocating repeal of section 218. And of Family Minister Giffey I also demand: Finally take a stand in defense of human life! Stand for the defense of persons not yet born! Stand on the side of life!

Because abortion is and must remain illegal, must also the ban on advertisement of abortion remain. What is forbidden must not be advertised. He who solicits a crime becomes ultimately an instigator.

            Michael Fieser (CDU/CSU): So does the AfD agree to the compromise?

That is also true in the exceptional case when the crime is not legally prosecuted. What was previously forbidden as advertising is now sold to us as information. That is semantic horse-trading [Rosstäuscherei], I must say; pitiful horse-trading.

What is advertising? When a service provider makes public information concerning his service for which he receives a pecuniary return, namely his fee, then it is not simply information, it is advertising. The term “pecuniary return” [Vermögensvorteil] you yourselves have used in your draft. Your attempt to simply define away this problem for the sake of coalition peace is a plaintive failure.

This draft statute is a further step along the fatal path to the repeal of section 218 and the normalization of abortion. Where that leads has been indicated by the Jusos [young socialists] national congress in December. They want the complete repeal of section 218. The State of New York now permits abortion in the ninth month. We do not want such contempt for human life in Germany. That is a fundamental contradiction of the understanding of our basic law [Grundgesetz].

The defense of unborn life is based on the constitution and is inseparably bound to Article I: “Human dignity shall be inviolable.” The Union parties have renounced the defense of life. The silence of the established churches is deafening. Thus is the AfD the last defender of unborn life in Germany. With complete conviction, we reject your draft.

Many thanks.

[Translated by Todd Martin]