Alice Weidel, February 27, 2022, Realpolitik

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/19, 1360-1361.

Right honorable Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.

Russia’s aggressive war in a neighboring country is a recall to the raw world of Realpolitik. The Ukrainian people pay the price for the Russian rupture of international law, for the illusion of its own leadership and for the false promises of the West.

It was a fatal failure to entice the Ukraine into a heedless confrontation, and a dangerous test of the breaking point, with promises of a membership in NATO and the EU, incapable of being fulfilled. It would have been wiser to listen to Henry Kissinger who already in 2014 correctly stated – I cite:

            “…so as to survive and develop itself, the Ukraine is allowed to be                                       no one’s outpost.”

That a NATO membership for the Ukraine presented a red line, the overstepping of which Russia would not accept as in previous rounds of NATO expansion in the East, lay clearly on the table for almost two decades.

Countless opportunities since then were neglected to negotiate a status of secured neutrality for the Ukraine which took into account the security interests of all and would have made possible that the Ukraine evolve from a dispute to a bridge between East and West. Instead, the hardliners, imprisoned in a utterly outdated Cold War logic, stubbornly hold fast to the prospect of accession for the Ukraine and thereby presumptuously gainsay Russia’s great power status. That is the historical failure of the West: To insult Russia. Nothing of the culpability of the Russian incursion is altered, yet the understanding of all origins is a prerequisite in the search for solutions.

Germany in its present state has nothing to offer so as to let deeds also follow words. Sanctions, which in the end inflict more damage on one’s own citizens than on those of which was intended, will be able to make no end of the war in the Ukraine. They are ultimately an alibi and sanction policy, just like shining the Ukrainian national colors on the Brandenburg Gate.

The failed energy transition, right honorable ladies and gentlemen, has led us into a fatal, one-sided dependency on Russian natural gas deliveries which in the short-term, if at all, can only be redeemed at astronomical costs. Who declares we are ready to pay a high economic price for that needs also say: It is the population which has to pay this price. There besides are reasons that the U.S.A. does not in this regard think of relinquishing its considerable oil imports from Russia.

            Götz Frömming (AfD): Aha!

In any case, in terms of security policy, Germany has become a lightweight. “And the Bundeswehr…stands there…bare”, confesses even the Inspector of the Army in rarely arrived at candor. A ruined Army and a marginalized arms industry, that is the inheritance of 16 years of Angela Merkel, Herr Merz!

Who shall still take us seriously when we break our economic and military backbone and, instead of with real problems, occupy ourselves with gender gaga and ideological experiments? That is gross nonsense!

We need to hear the wake-up call of Realpolitik. We need an energy policy which puts the focus on independence and supply security. The key to that is neither yet more windmills nor liquefied natural gas from the U.S.A. but the re-entry into the peaceful use of nuclear energy. How then if otherwise? 

We need a Bundeswehr which regains the national defense capability. That does not alone require more money but primarily a strategic change, right honorable ladies and gentlemen. And we require geopolitical moderation [Nüchternheit] instead of a feminist foreign policy. 

Attitude and fine words are no substitute for Realpolitik. After this war, we will as ever still live on one continent with Russia.

The challenge of creating a European security architecture which overcomes the thinking of East-West blocs, is not off the table, but it has become more difficult. Germany here can and should play an important role as honest broker. The prerequisite is that we draw the correct consequences and again rebuild lost trust, sovereignty and freedom of action, and not merely allow ourselves to be heedlessly drawn into a war, right honorable ladies and gentlemen. 

I am grateful. 

[trans: tem]

 

 

Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, February 24, 2022, Russia and Ukraine

AfD Kompakt, February 24, 2022.

Russia’s attack on the Ukraine is by no means to be justified. Russia must immediately cease combat operations and withdraw its troops from the Ukraine. The solution of inter-state conflicts can only ensue at the negotiations table.

In the talks, credible offers by the Russian partners will need be made which again strengthen the mutual trust. The Federal government has, in regards all attempts in common with our allies to bring about a peaceful solution of the conflict, the support of the party.

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

Eugen Schmidt, February 17, 2022, Russia

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/17, pp. 1126-1127.

Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. Frau president.

Chotjat li russkie wojnyj? – Do the Russians want war?

These are the words of a well-known Russian song. The answer is simple: Clearly not. Exactly as little as we want a war in Europe.

And what does the Union want? In their motion, they speak of a dialogue with Russia. Nevertheless, the content reveals the opposite. What is in the motion? Cloudy propaganda according to the motto “wicked Russians, good Westerners”. To Russia will be ascribed the sole responsibility for the present tension.

            Reinhard Brandl (CDU/CSU): So it is!

And? Is a Russian attack imminent? Yet one should have again taken place yesterday. Yet: Again not. The facts are that for decades the West has arrogantly ignored Russian security interests. Not once did the West want to seriously speak of this. Ja, now the Russian bear reacts irritably. Russia will be accused of disregarding the borders of other states.

            Sara Nanni (Greens): Take a peek at the map!

It can thus be seen. On the other side, NATO, with German participation, attacked Serbia in 1999. You remember: The first offensive war since the Second World War to proceed from German soil – ordered by a red-green government. Then, in the Kosovo conflict, the people’s right to self-determination was argued. Nevertheless, in regards Crimea and the Donbass this fundamental apparently does not apply.

            Michael Brand (CDU/CSU): Those are two distinct cases!

Double morality here becomes a trademark of the Union.

The Union places in question Nord Stream 2 and thus our secure gas supply. Do the interests of the U.S.A. weigh more heavily than those of the German people? It would be irresponsible to send weapons to this region. The political approach of the CDU and CSU contradicts the national and economic interests of our country.

Good relations with Russia are indispensable for the peace and prosperity of our continent. We reject the motion of the Union delegation.

Chotjat li russkie wojnyj? Nyet.

Many thanks.

 

[trans: tem]

 

Martin Hess, February 17, 2022, Interior Minister Faeser

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/17, pp. 1239-1240.

Right honorable Frau President. Esteemed colleagues.

The Interior Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, and thereby the service chief of the Bund’s security authorities, is for all that apparently a friend of the Antifa. This is intolerable, especially for those officers who defend our state and our society in the street, and for that are attacked with bottles, stones and incendiaries by precisely those Antifa.

Beyond that, this minister also sets fully false priorities in the Interior policy because she herself apparently adheres to an extreme leftist influenced worldview. And therefore we need to clearly state one thing: The Federal Interior Minister is a security risk for Germany.

In regards the evaluation of demonstrations, she manifests an intolerable double morality: Protest friendly to the government is in order, yet protest critical of the government is defamed as extreme right. In regards the Fridays for Future gatherings, the Minister herself runs along and even makes advertising for it on Twitter, even though the initiators openly cooperate with leftist extremists. Yet when throughout the country hundreds of thousands of citizens peacefully protest against the government’s overdone Corona preventive measures, this Interior Minister calls upon the citizens’ representatives to renounce the right to demonstrate. To that I can quite clearly say only one thing: The right to demonstrate applies in democracies and especially for critics of the Government and we will let no one take that from us.

Also in regards the combating of extremism, we experience a massive miscalculation by the Interior Minister. The Minister declares rightist extremism to be the greatest danger and dedicates the highest priority to combating it. In the Interior Committee yesterday she even asserted in all seriousness that this was verified by the numbers, and in that regard is exactly the opposite correct.

According to Europol statistics, in Europe between 2015 and 2020 there were 26 rightist terrorist attacks with ten deaths; yet in the same time frame, Islamist terrorists perpetrated 107 attacks with 382 deaths. Of those posing a danger in Germany, we have 73 rightist extremists, yet 554 Islamists. And last year up to October, the Federal attorney-general introduced 210 investigative proceedings related to Islamist terror, yet only five investigations against rightist extremism.The Rizin bomb attack in Cologne alone would have been able to produce 13,500 fatalities and again as many wounded if it had not been prevented by our security authorities. These numbers therefore clearly confirm: Islamist terror is the greatest security danger in our country and to it we need to dedicate our top priority.

Here yesterday were the names of the victims in Hanau many times read aloud. The names of the victims of the Islamist terror attack at the Breitscheidplatz were not mentioned a single time in the Bundestag. Their names are: Anna and Georgiy Bagratuni, Sebastian Berlin, Nadia Cizmar, Dalia Elyakim, Christoph Herrlich, Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, Klaus Jacob, Angelika Klösters, Dorit Krebs, Lukasz Urban and Peter Völker. And I say one thing to you in all clarity: All victims of this barbaric Islamist terror have deserved our remembrance.

An Interior Minister who stubbornly refuses to name Islamist terror as the greatest security danger for Germany, she wants not to improve the security situation but to enforce her left-green ideology.

This also verifies Nancy Faeser’s proximity to leftist extremism, of which there can be no doubt. A few months prior to her appointment, she published a contribution in the “antifa” magazine. In this same edition, brutal leftist violence was justified as self-defense, our security authorities were defamed as accomplices of rightist extremists. Not even now is she prepared to distance herself from the “antifa” magazine; beyond that, she still in 2016 also let herself be photographed with Anitfa members. Who so openly demonstrates her nearness to leftist extremism cannot and ought not lead the Federal Interior Ministry.

The Interior Minister flatters the enemies of the police from the Antifa and denies authorization of the peaceful protest of critical citizens. She wants to censure or even shut down the platforms of the free exchange of opinion and she announces a coalition of the willing for yet more asylum immigration to Europe, even though her own security authorities massively warn of that. With all of it, she deliberately and consciously disdains the fundamental rights of freedom and the vital security interests of our country’s citizens.

Germany requires no Antifa minister, but an Interior Minister for whom the citizens’ freedom and security enjoy the top priority. And therefore the Interior Minister should vacate her chair as quickly as possible. A left-green-red ideologist

            Vice-president Petra Pau: Herr Hess.

is out of place in the house of the Federal Interior Ministry.

 

[trans: tem]