German government parties dismiss AfD’s EU exit referendum call

Lawmakers from Germany’s governing parties on Monday rejected calls from the far-right AfD party to hold a Brexit-style referendum in Germany, saying “nobody in their right mind” would support such an idea.

As the AfD is currently polling second ahead of June’s EU elections, its leader, Alice Weidel, made headlines on Monday by calling for “a referendum on (…) a German exit from the EU”.

“[If] a reform isn’t possible, we should let the people decide, just like Britain did,” she told the Financial Times, referring to the AfD’s ambitions to curb the powers of European institutions.

Representatives of Germany’s ruling coalition, however, dismissed such a scenario because of the “uncontrollable consequences” for the country and the economy.

“Nobody with a sound mind can seriously call for [Germany’s exit from the EU],” Reinhard Houben, the liberal FDP’s lead MP on economic affairs, wrote on X

“A ‘Dexit’ [German exit from the EU] would have uncontrollable consequences for our country and Europe as a whole,” he added.

Green MP and junior minister in the economics ministry, Franziska Brantner, argued that an exit would “jeopardise the foundations of our prosperity”.

The EU’s single market is “essential for our economic success as a strong [export-oriented] economy,” she told AFP, while MEP Katarina Barley (SPD, S&D) also pointed to the negative economic consequences of Brexit for the UK on X.

Weidel’s proposal raised some eyebrows, given the extremely high level of support for EU membership among the German population, including AfD supporters.

In a recent poll, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) found that 87% of Germans support Germany’s membership of the EU, Euractiv reported in November.

While the figure was lowest among AfD supporters, a majority of 52% still said they favoured continued membership.

At the same time, referendums at the national level are practically impossible under the German constitution.

Majority of Germans, including far right, back the EU: poll

EU membership is strongly supported by an overwhelming 87% of Germans, with most far-right voters also in favour of remaining in the bloc, according to a new poll published on Thursday.

With just seven months to go until the European elections …

AfD unclear on ‘Dexit’

Faced with dwindling support for a German exit, the AfD dropped an explicit call for the dissolution of the EU from its manifesto for 2024, which it had campaigned for in the last general election.

The call for a “controlled dissolution” of the EU, which appeared in a draft version of the manifesto, was later dismissed as an editorial mistake.

Still, AfD’s stance on the matter remains somewhat unclear, particularly given Weidel’s latest comments.

Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s top candidate for the EU elections, previously insisted that Germany would not leave the EU alone – such a ‘Dexit’ was not something he supported.

However, according to Weidel, the party’s manifesto describes the EU as a “failed project” and “unreformable”, leaving open the possibility of a unilateral exit through a referendum.

The AfD’s manifesto also calls for the EU to be replaced by a new “confederation of European nations”.

Yet support for abolishing the EU and national EU exits among the AfD’s European allies from the far-right ID group is waning, with Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), for example, having already abandoned the idea of breaking away from the EU.

German far-right works for EU’s ‘controlled dissolution’

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is set to make the controlled dissolution of the EU one of its key targets for the upcoming European elections, with its leader Tino Chrupalla calling Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán one of his …

(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)