Alexander Gauland, February 7, 2020, Thüringen Elections

Alexander Gauland

Thüringen Elections

February 7, 2020, AfD Kompakt

[Alexander Gauland is a chairman of the AfD delegation in the German Bundestag. Bodo Ramelow (Linke) was Ministerpräsident of the eastern German state of Thüringen. The SED was the ruling party of the former Democratic German Republic (East Germany) and a predecessor of today’s Linke party.]

I can only caution those responsible in the CDU and the FDP against hoisting into office the candidates of the re-named SED, instead of now holding new elections. They may thereby begin anew the betrayal of their voters. The CDU and FDP have entered office so as to hinder Ramelow. Angst concerning the AfD now drives them into the arms of the Linke, and directly to the betrayal of their voters and election aims. Should the legislative members of the CDU and FDP now become the stirrup holders for Ramelow, they will conclusively demonstrate to their voters that they are ultimately only the compliant helpers of the Linke.

[Translated by Todd Martin]

Tino Chrupalla, January 30, 2020, Report on German Economy

Tino Chrupalla

Report on German Economy

German Bundestag, January 30, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/143, pp. 17844-17845

[Tino Chrupalla is a national chairman of the Alternative für Deutschland and an AfD Bundestag member from the eastern German state of Saxony. He is a painter and businessman and here responds to a government report on the German economy. Peter Altmaier (CDU) is the German Economics Minister.]

Right honorable Herr President. Honored colleagues. Dear countrymen.

“To Master the Structural Change”: This is the motto of the fiscal 2020 annual report of the Council of Advisors for the estimate of general economic development. In my opinion, it is a matter here of a report on the complacency of the Federal government. The so-called Economic Wise Men specify measures for purposes which moreover are already settled.

The message can be roughly summarized: Everything is tip-top, only here and there a couple of screws to be tightened; for example, yet more women and old men put to work, more so-called skilled labor to taken in from foreign countries; in no case is protection to be practiced, even when the rest of the world does so and, most important, all is to be coordinated internationally. A fundamental change of course will not be required. Of wisdom, there is not a trace.

The Chancellor, on the other hand, in her speech at the world economic forum in Davos, spoke in exceptionally clear terms.

Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Do not praise the Chancellor too much! You will no longer be chairman!

Now we know what is actually meant by Structural Change. I cite: “Transformations of gigantic, historic proportions.” That was her words. These transformations must take place because “the entire way of work and life to which we have been accustomed in the industrial age” will be fundamentally altered. Thus, the Chancellor’s prophesy.

            Timon Gremmels (SPD): And she is right!

She as well predicts that we will arrive at completely new forms of creation of value by means of a second, giant transformation – digitalization. I truly ask myself, in what crystal ball did this vision appear to you, Frau Merkel? What, when all of that is a giant rumpus in which the Big Player wins a Golden Nose while most of mankind is deprived of the material, social and spiritual fundamentals of life?

The Chancellor, fortunately, is of the understanding that not all people in Germany are as yet of that opinion or, as Herr Altmaier indeed has said, have not yet understood that these dramatic changes are really necessary and must also be financed by means of taxation. In her Davos speech, she even pleads that we speak with one another and “reconcile the emotions with the facts” – You have said that nicely, Frau Merkel.  

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): That you cannot do that is clear!

I agree. That is, ja, what has driven men like me into politics: We miss the readiness to engage in dialogue on the part of those –

            Sören Bartol (SPD): You and readiness to dialogue!

– who adhere to these great transformation ideas and are ready to pay any price –

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Facts are naturally difficult for the AfD!

like those possessed, wishing to rearrange our accustomed world [Lebensumwelt], and who do not appear to know what they are actually doing there.

Is this idea of great, structural change, of gigantic, world transformation, actually thought through to an end? Or is it again only the old dream of an earthly paradise based upon politics –

            Timon Gremmels (SPD): Trust the people for once!

– and which, like all these projects of the past, will shatter upon reality?  We of the AfD also agree that it is time to speak with one another. I am ready for this dialogue. It must nevertheless be an open-ended dialogue.

            Timon Gremmels (SPD): The AfD says that!

I have a pair of economics experts at hand, Herr Altmaier, who will not say to you what is expected but who could critically consult on your policy, which I will gladly arrange for you.

            Johann Saathoff (SPD): What do you want exactly? Promises, or what? Pay-offs!

Many thanks.

[Translated by Todd Martin]

           

           

           

           

Beatrix von Storch, January 30, 2020, EU-Israel Relations

Beatrix von Storch

EU-Israel Relations

German Bundestag, January 30, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/143, pp. 17909-17910

[Beatrix von Storch is an Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from Berlin. She is a lawyer and here introduces an AfD motion (Drucksache 19/16855) to “Improve Relations between the EU and Israel.” Heiko Maas (SPD) is the German Foreign Minister.]

Right honorable Frau President. Dear colleagues.

After 13 years, Germany again takes the chair of the EU Council. We demand of the Federal government in the first of our two motions today: Use this chairmanship to improve the relations between the EU and Israel. That is urgently necessary.

A November poll by the MITVIM Institute, together with your Friedrich Ebert Foundation, indicated that only 27 percent of Israelis see the EU as a friend of Israel, but 45 percent as an enemy. The overwhelming majority in this poll expressed more trust in Trump’s America or Putin’s Russia than in the EU. That gives us something to think about.

The biased, pro-Islamist and anti-Israeli attitude of the EU Commission and the EU Parliament weighs heavily on the relations with Israel. That is especially clear in three points: The EU refuses to designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization, the EU supports the anti-semitic BDS movement and the EU discriminates against Israel in that they now label wares as being from Jewish settlements; it could also be said that they stigmatize.

The Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung in November wrote of Heiko Maas’s speeches on anti-semitism, if I may cite: “He uses phrases who has nothing concrete to say.”

            Marianne Schneider (SPD): The AfD has a lot of experience in that!

The Federal government affirms Germany’s historic responsibility. But when it comes to the concrete, you kneel before the Islam lobby, as in the Kuwait Airways case, the subject of the second of our motions today.The anti-discrimination offices take aim at any Handwerkmeister who incorrectly describes positions according to gender. Yet an Arab aviation company can discriminate against Israeli citizens at a German airport and refuse to carry? Consider just for once if Lufthansa did that with Turks, Syrians or Iraqis.

            Vice-president Petra Pau: Frau von Storch –

No, thank you very much – How great would be the uproar? But with the Israelis: Complete and total silence. That is unacceptable and therefore: Approve today this motion from us. Put a stop to this intolerable practice!

Demands that the EU halt attacks on Israel will be ignored, blocked and, in the worst case, sabotaged.

First: Hezbollah. In the EU committee yesterday, my colleague Sigbert Droese asked the Foreign Minister: Will the Federal government during its Council presidency work to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and indeed as a whole? The answer was: That will not fly. What good is a EU which not even once is ready to classify as such a terrorist organization? What good is a EU which intentionally makes itself an area of return for terrorists? We do not want that.

Second: BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions]. We demand that the Bundestag resolution “Resolute Opposition to BDS” be implemented. The EU foreign policy representative has expressly declared that membership in the BDS anti-semitic movement does not lead to an exclusion from EU funds. That is incompatible with this Bundestag’s resolution. German tax money may not flow into the BDS movement, not even indirectly via the EU budget.

Third: The labeling duty. Central president Schuster yesterday yet again emphasized that to the Interior committee. The labeling duty for wares from the Jewish settlements is a discriminatory double standard. It pertains only to Israel and not to the rest of the world where there are also conflicts.

Alexander Lambsdorff (FDP): Which however was not deliberated on before the EuGH [European Court of Justice].

The Jerusalem Post headline on that: While Jihadis Attack Israel, EU Engages in Israel-bashing.

[Translated by Todd Martin]