The leader of the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, has pointed out that, if she were to govern, she would put an end to the European system of free movement, the Schengen Agreement, with the aim of preventing episodes like the massive entry of migrants recorded in Ceuta in mid-August.
"We are going to close it. We are going to withdraw from Schengen so that people like those from Ceuta cannot come here," Weidel stated in an interview with the German public television ZDF. "This agreement (Schengen) has to end," she added.
The AfD leader has lashed out at the current conservative government led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whom she blames for not exercising effective control over national borders. "There are open borders. Anyone can enter," she denounced, before asserting that "women are afraid to go out on the streets. There are knife attacks everywhere" and promising that all Syrians, estimated at about 1.3 million, will be "all returned to their country."
In this line, she has demanded to stop "granting citizenship to people who should leave our country" and has attacked the political leaders who run Germany, whom she has labeled as "idiots." "I don't want those idiots who sit there and lie to me, promising one thing and then doing exactly the opposite," she declared. "Either you are incompetent or it is deliberate. Merz is incompetent. Mr. (Lars) Klingbeil is also incompetent," she emphasized, referring to the Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) government.
In the economic field, Weidel has assured that, if AfD were to achieve a majority in the federal elections scheduled for 2029, she would eliminate the euro for considering it "an unstable" and "soft" currency. In her view, "there is a tremendous redistribution of wealth, but with an unstable currency."
According to the far-right leader, Germany "was significantly better" before the introduction of the single currency and now there is "a widespread impoverishment of the working segments of the population."