Marcus Buchheit, July 11, 2023, European Semiconductor Industry

AfD Kompakt, July 11, 2023. 

So that the European Chips Law does not become the next flop of megalomaniac EU policy, the EU should respect the subsidiarity principle and leave industrial policy in the hands of the national states. Semiconductor manufacturing is a key industry. Yet the promotion of same is empirically far better boosted by the member states than in an EU competence. EU projects are often announced with great tam-tam so to be subsequently buried the more secretively, silently and gently. The EU member states can do industrial policy better, more successfully and more profitably. 

 

[trans: tem]

 

Joachim Wundrak, July 6, 2023, NATO

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/115, pp. 14195-14196. 

Her President. Ladies and gentlemen. 

The CDU delegation 

            Johann David Wadephul (CDU/CSU): CDU/CSU!

thus wants the upcoming NATO summit to lead to success. A laudable intention, if it would then serve the interests of Germany and the German citizens. 

The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany in Article 24, paragraph 2, specifies that the Bund may arrange for the guaranty of peace in a system of mutual, collective security and can willingly agree to restrictions of its sovereign rights. A look at the AfD’s program of principles shows that we also regard Germany’s membership in NATO as a central element of our security strategy. 

We nevertheless understand NATO as a purely defensive alliance in regards the alliance territories according to the NATO treaty and basically reject interventions outside these territories. The recent experiences with foreign missions should here be a strong warning for us. Alliance solidarity alone cannot replace vital national interest for a mission of armed forces outside the treaty territories. We therefore also reject the globalization of NATO in the direction of the Indo-Pacific, especially the meddling in Chinese affairs regarding Taiwan. 

            Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD): Where does it meddle there? 

The Federal government should instead strengthen its diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution of the Taiwan question. 

We support the endeavor for a fair burden-sharing in NATO 

            Ulrich Lechte (FDP): Against freedom and democracy obviously!

and thereby also the so-called two percent goal. The strengthening of the European pillar of NATO is in the German interest so as to strengthen the weight and say of Europeans and also that of Germany vis-à-vis the dominant leading power, the U.S.A. Nevertheless, these additional fiscal means need in fact to be invested in armament and the Bundeswehr’s sustainable capability. It unfortunately is a fact that in the last 15 months the already reduced mission readiness of the German armed forces, as a result of donations to the Ukraine, has still further worsened. This is unacceptable.   

We welcome the membership of Finland and also soon that of Sweden in NATO because this will increase Germany’s security. On that account, we reject the acceptance of the Ukraine into NATO because that would mean not more security but less security. 

We also welcome that the NATO-Russia basic document of 1997 will not be seen as obsolete, despite the Russian aggression. In can in the long-term form a nexus for a new security structure which needs to be based on the principle of common security in Europe. Yet foremost must be sought practical ways for a rapid ending of the Russian war of aggression against the Ukraine. For that are to be used, in my opinion, NATO’s communication channels to Russia, as they were maintained for the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. 

We are critical in regards the announced long-term stationing of a German brigade of approximately 4,000 soldiers in Lithuania; colleague Wadephul has more precisely expressed that. This decision was certainly knit together quicktime with a hot needle. The question presents itself, At whose pressure was this done? From our viewpoint, the existing rotation solution for deterrence is fully sufficient. 

On the whole, we reject the motion put forward by the Union on account of the offensive character of the overall approach for NATO, although we thoroughly share in some of the points in regards the strengthening of the Bundeswehr. NATO needs to again concentrate itself on the its core duty according to the NATO  treaty: On the defense of the alliance territories. 

I thank you for your attention. 

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

 

 

Beatrix von Storch, July 6, 2023, Assisted Suicide

German Bundestag, July 6, 2023, Plenarprotokoll 20/115, pp. 14083-14084. 

Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen. 

The Federal Constitutional Court in 2020 declared the ban on commercial promotion [geschäftsmäßigen Förderung] of self-killing to be null. Pandora’s Box was thereby opened. 

To declare suicide to be an act of personal autonomy leads us, in my firm conviction, to a terrible and deadly path. The Netherlands have gone before us in this way. The result is devastating: In 2021, 7,666 deaths by assisted suicide, and in that regard overwhelmingly by means of killing on demand [Tötung auf Verlangen]. That is 4.5 percent of all deaths there, 10 percent more than in the previous year, ten times more than traffic deaths. Calculated for Germany, that would be 34,000, three times more than presently. 

When the assisted suicide law was decided on in the Netherlands, it was about extreme cases in which people were severely ill, without a perspective of survival. Now it is not only about incurable illness, it is ever more about physically healthy people who still have a long life ahead of them who actually need and seek assistance. 

Kingston University made a study in the Netherlands. There, people with mental handicap and autism are legally killed. The study uncovered 39 such cases from 2012 to 2021 by means of a random sample of 900 from 60,000 cases. If that is calculated for Germany, then that would be 11,500 people in Germany, mentally handicapped and autistic, who would have been killed. A particularly tragic example from the study: A young man in his 20s who named the reason for his death wish: Social isolation. He wanted to die because he was lonely. 

The circle of those affected thereby becomes almost limitless. In surveys of socio-economic panels, 42 percent of Germans declare that they feel lonely. The Dutch psychiatrist Dr. Bram Sizzo explains the motivation of people seeking assistance for suicide. I cite: 

They believe this will be the end of their problems and the end of the problems of their families.

That means, they take their own lives because they do not want to be a burden on their families. That is terrifying. 

The draft laws put forward emphasize that the suicide should result from one’s own accord as an autonomous decision. They thus see entirely the danger that people take their own life under social pressure. I do not believe that they will prevent that; not one of the drafts. Against social pressure helps no double consultation obligation and no remark on a consultation document. Precisely in times of crisis, the pressure grows on the old and sick – not only on them, but on them especially – to be a burden on no one. We will have very many old and sick without families and very many more crises. 

The Chancellor has spoken for more respect. The reality appears otherwise. A frequent headline in the spring was “Housing Emergency in Germany: Pensioners Live Too Grandly”. Regensburg University has proposed forcing the pensioners into smaller residences by increasing the rental prices, and in Berlin the Berlin Church Institute has shown the door to 110 seniors. 

And added to that: The entire infrastructure of supervision, counseling and care of the old, the sick and those needing assistance, and of physically and mentally ill people, finds itself in an existential crisis. Care homes in great numbers are going insolvent. In Hesse, 25 percent closed this year. 60 percent of hospitals are in a business imbalance; many will close. The local provision for old and ill people is already bad and is becoming much worse. The emergency is growing. The average wait time for a therapy place for people in psychological distress amounts to five months. What will be the consequences if, in view of the crisis in care and health provision, it will be simpler to receive a nearby, open-ended [ergebnisoffene] suicide consultation than a care or therapy place? Before we strengthen the suicide prevention, you want to be concerned with open-ended suicide consultation. 

These are not my values. We should live our lives in freedom and responsibility before God. The beginning and end of life lie alone in the Hand of God. In that, I believe. 

Many thanks.

  

[trans: tem]

 

 

Kay Gottschalk, June 23, 2023, Local Banking and Banking Union

German Bundestag, June 23, 2023, Plenarprotokoll 20/113, p. 13908. 

Right honorable President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. 

Right honorable colleague Müller, we here in fact are in conformity in many things – that is good so. Yet I cannot here understand the optimism of colleague Oehl in so far as on the delegation trip – on May 31, I saw no one from the SPD there – your colleagues in the European Parliament said something entirely different.   

I believe, we all here have learned, that on the altar of political desire lofty principles have quite often been sacrificed. On that account, it is good that we with you submit a motion [Drucksache 20/7355] – our motion is of course better than that of the CDU/CSU, yet not a word was mentioned. Savings accounts in fact provide for the Mittelstand and for the regional economy at hand. Yet there exists in the area – and that is good so – relatively strong, affiliated networks so that you, ladies and gentlemen in the galleries, certainly still have corresponding, interested partners on site in credit matters, yet also in other financial business.    

The savings bank association, the public and Raffeisen banks as well as the cooperative banks, distinguish themselves throughout – that is little mentioned here – in that they have at their disposal paid-up deposit guaranty funds beyond that of the so-called institute guaranty system, IPS, so that in fact all deposits, ladies and gentlemen in the galleries, even the deposits not legally covered, have been insured, and that is a distinct difference to many other European financial centers. 

The EU Commission now puts forward the so-called CMDI statutory initiative with which they pursue many sub-topics. In the system proposed by the statutory initiative, it would thereby lead to that there would be an accelerated liquidation [beschleunigte Abwicklung] of the banks – as it is now – and thereby the IPS, the institutions’ internal guaranty, would no longer take effect, ladies and gentlemen. We therefore demand of you, like the banking associations – the Italian, the Polish and also the Spanish associations do so – to take up a clear positioning so as to maintain this functional capability.   

Right honorable colleagues of the CDU, well meant – and what you pass over in silence here – is frequently badly done, especially when it comes from the Commission. The question thus presents itself, how well is meant the financial center of Germany by the Commission President by the name of Frau von der Leyen who comes from the CDU? It was also mentioned in this place; since by means of the existing proposal – I have plainly said it – the well-earned strengths of our guaranty network, certainly for the small and mid-sized banks and at the cost of the regional financial economic stability – it needs be said so brutally – would be flattened to a European level [europäisch eingeebnet], ladies and gentlemen. 

Here one may in fact – in so far as both our motions are reasonable – overhear that the EU Commission directly and obtrusively points to that, even if the statutory proposal does not contain it, it is held to be urgently necessary and considered as a best solution, that the deposit guaranty funds, which plainly by all standards have been well fulfilled, which for our savers and investors is good, are to be communitarized [zu vergemeinschaften] and thereby is finally to be completed the banking union. In this purpose, ladies and gentlemen of the debts coalition, you are now for once united, and you should show your colors. 

To communitarize the deposit guaranty system at this moment, as is gladly desired by the Commission, – permit the comparison – would be like enrolling in a fire insurance which is on the brink of bankruptcy – for some states, that is certainly so – because, in regards other customers, uncontrolled smolderings already burn in the balances and the central fire department – here, the ECB – we have again and again spoken of the European Budget Authority’s report – refuses to introduce measures to extinguish.     

            Filiz Polat (Greens): How can one as a Social Democrat change to the AfD?

That is of course concretely the other background why we need to speak of this motion. 

            Vice-president Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Come please to an end. 

I come to a conclusion. The AfD delegation therefore demands of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner – he is unfortunately not here – to let acts follow his words and to secure the functional capability of the IPS 

            Vice-president Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Herr colleague.

and to prevent the communitarization of the deposit guaranty funds. 

Many thanks.

  

[trans: tem]

Rüdiger Lucassen, June 28, 2023, Bundeswehr in Lithuania

AfD Kompakt, June 28, 2023. 

The Ampel government here proclaims in passing a decision of strategic importance without parliamentary participation or putting forward a concrete plan for implementation. The stationing of a combat brigade on foreign ground would be a novelty in German post-war history. Never yet was a large unit of the Bundeswehr stationed long-term in a foreign country. The Federal government thereby besides renounces de facto the NATO-Russia basic document. For the AfD delegation, it is settled: A decision of such range needs to be decided by the Bundestag. Should it in fact come to a stationing, the prerequisites for that would scarcely be able to be met. Four thousand soldiers require a military infrastructure and provision facilities for their families. It is entirely unclear how the government wants to muster the forces and financial means for that. 

 

[trans: tem]

Christian Wirth, June 22, 2023, Domestic Terrorism and Surveillance

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/112, pp. 13757-13758. 

Frau President. Valued colleagues. 

Herr Grötsch, I really almost thought I would be obliged to thank you as you had begun to say what is important: All here in house are against any kind of terrorism. I owed it to you. Unfortunately, you again disappoint in this narrative: Most of the danger proceeds from the right. 

            Lamya Kaddor (Greens): Yet that is no narrative! 

            Uli Grötsch (SPD): It is proved! For years!

I want to tell you one example. In the year 2022, in the area of phenomena of “right extremism, right terrorism” – in any case, too much – 19 proceedings were initiated by the Federal Prosecutor General, in the area of phenomena of “left extremism, left terrorism” one proceeding, and in the area of phenomena of “Islamic-motivated extremism/terrorism” all of 236 proceedings. 

Matthias W. Birkwald (Linke): It does not depend on proceedings! It depends on verdicts!

This standard picture, “most of the danger proceeds from the right” – you thereby certainly do not mean terrorism – is a narrative the propagation of which has two reasons. 

One thing is quite clear; that, with these billions against the right, NGOs shall be fed which have, for example, been paid for having meanwhile flown in 52,000 for the 250 Afghanistan local auxiliaries as reported by you. 

For another, Herr Haldenwang yesterday has confirmed, as he stated on public television: The Constitution Defense is not alone responsible for reducing the AfD’s polling numbers. That is a quite clear sign that not just in this legislative period under you, in the SPD’s Interior Ministry, but already in the CDU’s Interior Ministry, an order has been given to the Constitution Defense, to clear away a politically disagreeable opponent – and nothing else other. Yet this will have its consequences. 

            Alexander Hoffmann (CDU/CSU): Ever the same story!

We have already spoken of diverse cases. In the case of Castrop-Rauxel, Syrians seeking protection have attempted to carry out an attack with Rizin. According to careful estimates, some 30,000 to 40,000 dead and injured were to be tallied. We already previously had such a case with a Syrian in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Those are real dangers, which gives one to think, if one does think, how many victims of Islamism there have been in Europe in the last years. Those are the dangers with which we need to deal. 

These dangers unfortunately are often imported. We have for 2022 registered 530 persons posing a danger in the area of phenomena of “religious ideology”, and an additional 503 as so-called relevant persons. 317 of those posing a danger remain in Germany, and 448 of the relevant persons. 132 of those posing a danger do not possess German citizenship. It needs be said: They still do not possess it. Of the relevant persons, 171 are foreign citizens. Almost half of those 132 posing a danger in the area of phenomena of “religious ideology” with a foreign citizenship are Syrians; 62, so as to say exactly. Deported in the first three quarters of 2022 were 17 persons from the Islamic spectrum of whom five were those posing a danger. Merely five of 132 of those posing a danger were deported. This cannot continue. 

We have just peeked at the situation. I will not now return to the mass attacks in the swimming pools. Yet we see it in Nordrhein-Westfalen, in Castrop-Rauxel, Essen, Cologne: What is happening there? Turks, Lebanese and Syrians give themselves over to a war, a gang war, a clan war, on German streets. With up to 500 participants. These Syrians have well integrated themselves. They learn from the Lebanese that here one can carry out his power politics on German streets. 

            Lamya Kaddor (Greens): Auweia!

Law we give them in the area “Precaution, security custody, preventive detention”. 

A quite important theme which should concern us all is of course the online search and sources of telecommunications surveillance. Actually, the Ampel coalition had announced to quickly deal with these themes, just as the Greens and the FDP had asserted in the last legislative period that, following the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, they had found the stone of the wise. This is indeed not so. 

            Vice-president Yvonne Magwas: Please come to a conclusion.

The new speed limit in Germany is indeed to be measured by the freight bicycle, with one forward movement and four backwards. Here we need to quite quickly act. We owe it to the victims, the potential victims and certainly to the victims of child abuse. 

            Vice-president Yvonne Magwas: Last sentence Herr Dr. Wirth, please. 

Many thanks.

  

[trans: tem]