Germany: AfD Votes for Weidel, SPD Appoints Scholz as “Candidate for Chancellor”
Weidel: If AfD wins the next election, it will announce the end of the energy transition and withdrawal from EU climate policy
Germany is preparing for general elections, which are scheduled for February 23 in this European country. On Saturday, January 11, Germany’s two largest political parties, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), held their national congresses to select candidates for chancellor.
In Ries, in the German state of Saxony, AfD leader Alice Weidel (pictured) was elected by a direct vote of 600 delegates to the National Congress and officially named the right-wing party’s candidate for German chancellor. For security reasons, the AfD party congress started two hours late due to demonstrators who gathered in Ries to protest against the federal party congress of the Alternative for Germany party.
Ahead of the February 23 election, polls show support for AfD rising 2 percentage points to 22% of the vote.
In her speech at the AfD congress, Weidel said that one of the central points of the party’s program will be the fight against uncontrolled immigration: in Germany: “We want to finally close the borders” and “reject everyone who enters illegally and without documents,” the AfD leader said, calling for “large-scale repatriation of those who are not allowed to stay.”
Moreover, according to Weidel, if the AfD wins the next election, it will announce the end of the energy transition and withdrawal from the European Union’s climate policy: “Of course, we will restart existing nuclear power plants and invest in next-generation reactors ready for the future,” emphasized the likely future German chancellor, who is backed by U.S. billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Meanwhile in Berlin, the congress of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) nominated current Chancellor Olaf Scholz as its candidate for the German Federal Chancellor in the next federal election. According to delegates, Scholz “led the country forward and led it through serious crises with strong nerves and prudence.” Regarding the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, Scholz “did everything possible to ensure that their war did not become our war,” said Saskia Esken, co-chairwoman of Germany’s Social Democratic Party. With this attitude, “we will approach the election debates with great unity,” Esken added.
