AfD to withdraw Germany from eurozone, Schengen Agreement if comes to power - leader

AfD's Weidel vows border closures, Schengen exit, and euro withdrawal ahead of state elections

Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), has laid out an uncompromising program for a future national government, pledging to restore permanent German border controls, withdraw from the Schengen system, and eventually leave the euro. Her remarks came as the party enters a crucial run of state elections with some of its strongest polling numbers to date.

Speaking in ZDF's summer interview, Weidel argued that Germany's existing political and economic model had failed working people while weakening national control over migration. She said the AfD was preparing not merely to influence government policy, but to govern.

"We will govern in the first federal states," Weidel said. "And we will also govern at the federal level."

Her sharpest criticism was reserved for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, and the globalist political establishment surrounding them. Weidel said she was tired of being "lied to" by politicians who promise one thing and deliver another.

"I no longer want to be lied to by some dimwits sitting up there promising something and doing the exact opposite," she said. "Either they can't do it, or it's intentional."

The AfD leader also attacked the CDU's so-called firewall — the refusal by Germany's established centrist-globalist party to cooperate with the AfD. Weidel called the policy "the most undemocratic thing there is" and predicted it would eventually destroy the CDU's ability to win national elections.

"I am prepared to work with anyone as long as they are capable and have the interests of our country in mind," she said. But she added that she would not accept Germans being "ridiculed and lied to" by the CDU and SPD.

Migration, meanwhile, remains at the center of the AfD's political project. Weidel said the problem begins at Germany's borders and argued that national authorities must regain direct control over who enters the country.

"We will close them," she said of the borders, adding that an AfD government would also return all Syrians and stop bringing Afghans to Germany. She called for more deportations and fewer naturalizations, and referenced Ceuta as a pressure point. German media estimate the Syrian population in Germany at 1.3 million.

Weidel reaffirmed her party's commitment to leaving the euro, saying "Germany was significantly better off before the introduction of the euro." She also opposed climate intervention, favoring market and technology openness instead.

In a separate development, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla called the summer heat a "perfectly normal summer" and called for the abolition of postal voting.

State election prospects

Weidel's comments come as the AfD enters a series of state elections in September. Saxony-Anhalt is the first of three state elections, with Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania voting on Sept 20. A recent Infratest dimap poll shows AfD with 41 percent support in Saxony-Anhalt, well ahead of 24 percent for the CDU. The party's lead candidate in the state, Ulrich Siegmund, has stated the AfD's aim to govern alone there, and Weidel expressed confidence the party will secure the necessary majority to govern in the state alone.

Despite its strong showing in some past regional elections, the AfD has yet to enter a state or federal government because all other major parties have ruled out cooperation with it. Weidel said the CDU's refusal to work with the AfD — a policy known in Germany as the "firewall" — was weakening the conservatives and would eventually put her party in a position to govern nationally.

"The CDU will never win another federal election," she said.

The AfD has long argued that the "firewall" was undemocratic, while the CDU says the policy is necessary because the AfD poses a threat to Germany's fundamental principles and its constitutional order.

The AfD also leads national voting-intention polls, though with a smaller margin. The latest Politbarometer survey by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen put the party at 27 percent, compared with 22 percent for the CDU/CSU bloc.

Weidel has also repeated the party's call for a tougher immigration policy and Germany's withdrawal from the European system of passport-free travel to better secure its borders.