BERLIN, May 30. /TASS/. Germany’s authorities have turned the country into a veritable "danger zone" for its citizens, with the quality of life worsening every year, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel said.
"The establishment’s policy has turned Germany into a danger zone for its citizens. People are suffering from mass migration, exponential growth of crime, skyrocketing energy prices, inflation and degrading welfare," she told an international conference of conservative forces in Budapest.
According to Weidel, this was the reason people in Germany ousted the "old left, green government," only to find themselves with a government that "continues following the same catastrophic path."
She went on to say that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz "is wasting German taxpayers’ money" on supporting Ukraine.
Apart from that, in her words, the German government is trying to hush critical voices, branding them as right-wing extremists. "The current government continues to wage war on freedom of speech, following in the footsteps of their predecessors. It is seeking to silence those who criticize it, painting them as far-right extremists, criminalizing their legitimate views under the guise of combating hate speech and disinformation," she said.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or the country’s counterintelligence agency, which has designated AfD as a right-wing extremist party, "is, as a matter of fact, a service for the protection of the weakening establishment. When it comes to regular intelligence activities to expose terrorists and prevent terror attacks, they are a complete failure," Weidel said, adding that instead of doing its job, the agency "is spying on the opposition, branding it an enemy of the constitution and fabricating grounds to ban the party."
Elections in Germany
On May 6, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially presented Friedrich Merz with his letter of appointment as Chancellor after he had been elected by the Bundestag in the second round of voting, securing 325 votes - slightly above the 316 needed - against 289 nays and a single abstention.
The path to this victory was marred by a significant setback in the first round, where Merz garnered only 310 votes. This was a historic anomaly, as the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc together hold 328 seats in the Bundestag. Never before in the Federal Republic’s history had a candidate from the leading party suffered such a failure after an election and successful coalition negotiations.
Germany held its early parliamentary elections on February 23. The CDU/CSU bloc won, garnering 28.5% of the vote. For the first time in its history, the Alternative for Germany party came in second with 20.8%. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) came in third, receiving 16.4% of the vote, followed by the Greens (11.6%) and the Left Party (8.8%).