Jan Nolte, March 3, 2021, Bundeswehr in the Mediterranean

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/214, pp. 26964-26965.

Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.

Every year we speak here on Operation Sea Guardian, the proponents of this mission expound on the general importance of the fight against terror and arms smuggling and emphasize how important are secure seaways. These general positions normally cannot be contradicted,

           Daniela De Ridder (SPD): Then don’t you do it!

yet do not have much to do with Operation Sea Guardian.

For we speak, ja, every year again anew on the balances of these missions. And it also now appears that we still have seen no terrorists in the Mediterranean,

            Daniela De Ridder (SPD): Ever heard of deterrence?

that in the Operation Sea Guardian area still no arms smuggler has been apprehended, and that the Federal government besides does not have any knowledge of other threats to security in the Operation Sea Guardian area.

For 20 years now we are there in place, if we figure in the predecessor Operation Active Endeavour. Despite that, the Federal government apparently wants to continue to remain there; it appears, as you also do not want to enter into the slightest risk, it will, for all that, still in some way happen. When one hears this and is aware that here in our capital city, in Berlin, clan bosses decide whether there is to be war or peace, and not the police, then one can only wish that one, fine day the Federal government fights criminality here in Germany with the same élan as we now already do outside of Germany.

The explanation for why there are no arms smugglers and no terrorists there, I have plainly also heard from my preceding speaker – she sat here again –, is plainly deterrence; of which all are afraid and on that account none came. That we also have never seen the enemy on whose account we are actually there, may be a sign of how good the mandate is. Yet that cannot be a basis for a member of the Bundestag to vote in favor here. That is certainly completely arbitrary. That would mean that in the future we no more only decide on a mandate because of an enemy who is there, but also because of an enemy who is not there, yet could still perhaps sometime emerge purely hypothetically.

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): Such nonsense!

If this theory is to be believed, one please needs to consider: Sea Guardian pertains to ships which, besides those in the Mediterranean, are in transit. We could thus today end Operation Sea Guardian, save ourselves 3 million euros per year, and there are exactly these same ships in the Mediterranean as before, and the bad boys still tremble at the knees on account of our ships – all works wunderbar.

If the text of the motion is read, then one also has the impression that the Federal government itself does not exactly know how they should establish the value of the operation. Of that, there is an example as follows: The contribution to the building-up of capacity in the Mediterranean littoral states. And what does it consist of? We have held general information reports in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. – Ja, that might be quite nice, but I believe for the building-up of capacity in the Mediterranean littoral states, better concepts nevertheless occur to us; for that, we do not need Operation Sea Guardian.

Also, joint exercises are to be emphasized as a result of Sea Guardian. It can only therein be called to mind: Multinational exercises are entirely top-notch; yet for that, no mandate is needed.

As a result: We do not need Operation Sea Guardian. We can save ourselves 3 million euros per year. With that, we can buy our soldiers good equipment. We as the Alternative für Deutschland do not here today vote in favor.

I now still have 28 seconds: Frau De Ridder, I can in one sentence go into what you have said here – I have it only approximately in memory: In regards the defense of soldiers, you somehow stand on the side of the soldiers. – A hypocrisy before the Lord, really!

           Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Now you are done!

No longer block the arming of drones, then can the soldiers be protected. It so appears as if in an operational country some tragedy needs to occur so that the SPD sees the political momentum and finally summons up the courage for a decision. Defend our soldiers and don’t duck out!

            Daniela De Ridder (SPD): Your populism is cheap! Cheap!

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

Joana Cotar, March 5, 2021, Trust

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/216, pp. 27323-27324.

Frau President. Esteemed colleagues.

We are speaking in this current affairs hour of the loss of trust in democratic institutions and how that is to be counteracted. The colleagues preceding me have flourished big speeches; the lobby register shall finally come. For tracking how and where lobbyists attempt to acquire influence in the preparation of particular laws, it is in fact not suited; yet you think what should be, that we already somehow have, that is already suitable. Esteemed colleagues, do you really believe that? I do not.

What do you believe the people think of when listening to Health Minister Spahn who says: “Stay home! Corona is dangerous. No social fraternizing!”, and must read that this particular health minister on the same evening has met with businessmen for dinner, the masks worn only for memorial photographs, and that the participants had been required to pay 9,999 euros – as we have heard; since at 10,000, the names must be published.

            Otto Fricke (FDP): No! Over 10,000, Frau colleague! One should at                                         least know that!

A lucrative evening for the Health Minister – a quite dreary hour for the credibility of politics!

And what does the citizen think when he hears the name of Andreas Scheuer? Toll disaster, an endless, embarrassing list of failures, a devastating critique from the Federal Audit Authority and a subsequently imposed security classification so that the dirty business does not come to the light of day. The Transportation Minister’s failures will cost the taxpayer over half a billion euros – of lost trust, we must here simply not begin to speak.

And what does the citizen think of when he hears the name of Philipp Amthor? Not of 30, but how share options and director posts are received as a reward for favors…Further: Georg Nüsslein, assistant chairman of the CDU/CSU Bundestag delegation, who shall have cooperated in the illegal sale of masks; Axel Fisher, CDU Bundestag member, accused of corruption; Nikolas Löbel, CDU Bundestag member, the third of the bunch.

           Götz Frömming (AfD): An entire nest!

How much trust is lost by students who themselves write their doctoral work and then notice that it is otherwise; who see that plagiarism by our Family Minister Giffey simply has no effects, other than she “voluntarily” renounced her doctorate title – how noble of her!

Yet all of that can still be topped! Ursula von der Leyen, our former Defense Minister, for her consultants affair, in regards which all cell phone data has been deleted – so that nothing can be tracked – has not been punished, no, she has been rewarded with the position of President of the European Commission – an office for which she has not even stood for election. Yet Frau von der Leyen is at least consistent and has in her first crisis also completely failed – congratulations.

And you ask in all seriousness how so the citizens no more trust and believe you! And you believe you may settle that with a register? How shall the citizens trust politicians who only look after their own advantage,

            Helin Evrim Sommer (Linke): What is it then with Frau Weidel?

who for their failures need fear no consequences? Earlier, ministers had apologized and had taken their leave – today, Pattex [super glue] politicians lack the stature for a resignation.

            Bitta Haßelmann (Greens): Frau Weidel! How about her party contributions                            affair?

How shall the citizens trust politicians who denigrate them when they criticize the present policy, who call them “Dunkeldeutsche”, “Pack” [rabble], and “Idioten”? How shall the citizens trust politicians who drive laws at a pig’s trot through the Bundestag, without time for consultation; laws which are stuck in other laws like spyware because you are afraid of public debate; who let Huawei sponsor political party days and naturally cannot subsequently decide on the exclusion of this concern from the construction of networks;

            Götz Frömming (AfD): Embarassing!

whose laws are routinely annulled by the Federal Constitutional Court because they are unconstitutional;

Helin Evrim Sommer (Linke): What do you do? Party contributions! If one sits                            in a glass house, one should not throw stones!

who regard the basic rights to be privileges which can be distributed at discretion;

            Matthias Bartke (SPD): Who then has written this speech?

who no more come to the most important decisions of the Corona policy here in the Bundestag, but in the Chancellor’s Office; who make an admirer of Mao an important counselor to the government in the Corona crisis; and who shortly before the elections, sic the politically instrumentalized Constitution Defense on the largest opposition party – because you are afraid for your positions and power – and who thereby still fail at court and today have yourselves to blame to the bone, ladies and gentlemen.

Nein, esteemed colleagues, you do not thus create trust, thus the people are lost. And you still do not even notice that. Germany deserves something better than you and your politics; no register will change anything of that. Election Day is payday! One thing I promise you: You do not belittle us of the AfD, and not with a marionette by the name of Haldenwang.

Many thanks.

 

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

Alice Weidel, March 3, 2021, Corona Lockdown

AfD Kompakt, March 3, 2021

These decisions are a disdain for the citizens who increasingly have enough of the unplanned and useless lockdown policy of the Federal government and the States. Of a “prospect of getting out” nothing can be said in view of this confusing and incomprehensible heaping up of arbitrary rules, value numbers and conditions pulled out of a hat.

For most of the firms in the retail and restaurant trades and for the service providers, the decisions mean further weeks of insecurity which many of them will not survive. Warm words and periodically repeated empty promises cannot compensate the daily increasing losses of the businessmen and self-employed who stand with their backs to the wall and in many cases have consumed the last of their savings and reserves. Tourism, hotels, the exhibition business and culture again fall through the grate. The prolongation of the enforced standstill will mean the death blow for many firms and establishments.

While Merkel’s round of wheeling and dealing further locks down the constitution and the citizens in a cage of proscriptions and prohibitions, she also evidently ever still ignores the taboo theme now voiced by RKI [Robert Koch Institute] chief Wiehler of the high proportion of migrants among the Covid intensive care patients. It is not acceptable that the citizens endlessly assume collective liability for the Federal government’s failures and denial of reality, yet are to look away when certain ethnic groups simply refuse to obey the rules and appeals.

 

 

[trans: tem]

 

Tino Chrupalla, March 4, 2021, Economic Policy

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/215, 27033-27035. 

Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable representatives of the Federal government. Esteemed colleagues. 

For weeks and months our country finds itself at a standstill. Businesses are idle, families are torn apart. The psychic pressure on people increases as strongly as does the lack of understanding of the repeated prohibitions and restrictions. The Federal government’s Corona preventive measures are untenable, unemployable and are meanwhile for reasonable people utterly unintelligible.   

Frau Chancellor, you have maneuvered our country into a dead-end in which we can turn only with difficulty. The people were patient. They have put up with restrictions. Only, at which price? Ever again were they put off. 

One gets the impression that your Federal government possesses neither a plan nor the aptitude nor a will for a specific change of course. Do you not see see what is happening with this country and its citizens? Are all of you on the government bench impotent and angst-ridden? Where are your concepts for the German economy, Herr Altmaier? Where remain the long promised and urgently necessary support payments? What have you invested in the economic sector which still has the most employees – the small and Mittielstand businesses? Who guarantees the future of our social security system if the basis for that – the Mittielstand and the skilled trades – de facto no longer exist, having been abolished by you? Only here occurs the real value creation. Only so can we continue to live in prosperity and peace. 

Herr Altmaier and Herr Wanderwitz, compared with you, Günter Mittag and Hermann Axen in the DDR were genuine economic visionaries. 

            Timon Gremmels (SPD): Mein Gott!

In this regard, simply nothing comes from you. We, the German Bundestag, were presented with a great trust by the voters to lead this country in times of crisis. We must again persuade our people that we have earned this trust. 

The Alternative für Deutschland’s Bundestag delegation puts forward with the submitted motions [Drucksache 19/ 26895, 27204, 27206] conclusive and rapidly applicable specific measures. It is our goal

             Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Forward always! Backwards never!

to thereby still be able to shape Germany’s economic present and future. It would be much preferred by us, it would by me, if I could be able to say to my children: You need not worry yourselves about the future. At the moment, it is no more clear to me what we can still hand over to our future generations if Germany longer finds itself in the governing power of Frau Dr. Merkel. Quite clearly remain: Debts, depression, lack of perspective. 

The scientifically questionable and purely politically motivated “incidence value” ought no more bear the brunt as the basis for your lone decisions in the Corona cabinet. On that account, we here indicate concrete alternatives and concepts for an exit from the misery for which you are guilty. 

Right honorable ladies and gentlemen, allow me to come to the core requirements of our motions paper. I begin with the basic postulate: The orderly end of the lockdown – as quickly as possible.

             Timon Gremmels (SPD): Secure and not quick!

It must be the goal to slowly again start up the economy curtailed for almost a year. This process for each economic branch and business is a different length of time. That must be prepared for! Meanwhile, supply chains are interrupted. Suppliers’ productions were even so reduced as were the consumption chains with the end consumers. 

Let us take the example of the restaurant trade. Shortly before Christmas, the reserve stores were still full. The holidays were imminent and the expected turnover did not take place. The resulting losses were multiplied: For one, the taverns were closed; for another, foodstuffs on a substantial scale needed to be destroyed.

             Timon Gremmels (SPD): But that will be compensated.

And the previously described process now applies: The supply chains must again run so as to again make business possible. 

This allows me to come to the next point and to one of the core requirements of our motions: The basic financial provision of the business people. For all those who still exist need the long promised Corona assistance. Without this can neither basic and wage expenses nor costs for a new start be defrayed. 

And for all of us it is meanwhile clear that we in the coming months must still secure a large number of assistance payments to the affected businesses. We must show that on the part of the state we also support businesses in difficult times. 

We must today create parameters so that the people want to again implement their innovative ideas in the land of Dichter und Denker. Despite all the difficulties, it must again be attractive to start up a business in Germany. A slogan for this is bureaucracy deconstruction. I can no more listen to it. Citizen and business suffocate under bureaucracy. Every week, new layers are added. We continually bring that into the political debate. Only, you unfortunately are deaf. 

Let us look at the side of the consumer. A functioning economic system lives by supply and demand. After a year of part-time work, many of the end consumers simply lack the money to be able to again invest. For that, we propose the long-term reduction of the value added tax from 19 to 15 percent. Domestic demand and our retailers will also profit from this. 

It is now naturally asked: How can these things actually be financed? For we are, ja, always hearing: Tax increases or other additional revenues. – Yet here we also need to approach expenditures; for example, by means of savings in regards the apportionments to the European Union. The Federal government plans to increase the German gross contribution to over 40 billion euros per year. We can and must put an end to that. According to our concept, the payments will be returned to and frozen at the contribution level of the year 2019. Project Europa can only have a future with strong, national finance partners. For that, we in Germany and for our citizens require sustainable investments. We must finally again strengthen the domestic economic power. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the Federal government, a commentary in the “Neuen Zürcher Zeitung” of March 1 of this year expresses in its title what the majority of Germans meanwhile think of your Corona policy: “Germany in Long-term Lockdown. To Defend to the Death Is Also to Be Dead”. The receding acceptance of your preventive measures or, much more, the people’s clear rejection [deutliche Ablehnung] shows what the citizens are asking for. 

            Timon Gremmels (SPD): There is no clear rejection!

Frau Chancellor, end this painful lockdown. What must yet happen before you come to reason and listen to the cry of the people? Adapt and extend the hygiene concepts. Finally trust your citizens! Do not treat them like dumb children! The prolonged prohibitions will not let you curtail the voices of your critics. We will more and more lose connection with the life out there and thereby jeopardize the stability of our democracy. 

Esteemed colleagues of this sovereign house, the economy and the people in Germany require a real perspective. We are all tired of the political maneuvering of this Federal government which is no more aligned to our welfare. We are to be treated reasonably. Finally pull yourselves together and vote for the AfD’s motion! We need a fundamental change for Germany! 

[trans: tem]