Calls for Germany to follow in the footsteps of the UK and leave the European Union have been met with ridicule, as lawmakers have branded the idea “stupid”.
Germany, one of the EU three, helped found the union in 1958 alongside Italy and France and has served as its backbone in the decades since, partly through its mammoth contributions of more than 30 billion Euros per year.
However, far-right politicians in the country aim to disrupt the long-standing relationship and have used the UK’s Brexit model as inspiration.
Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, has floated the idea of a “Dexit”, a German equivalent to the UK’s landmark departure in 2016.
She argued that such a decision would be “dead right” for Germans and would boost the country’s self-determination.
Speaking to the Financial Times in an interview published today, the leader echoed the position of several leading Brexiteers when she said a government under her party would try to reform the EU.
She said AfD would seek to remove its “democratic deficit” from within, at first, but if this failed, the party would “let the people decide”.
Ms Weidel said: “But if reform isn’t possible, if we fail to rebuild the sovereignty of the EU member states, we should let the people decide, just as Britain did.
“And we could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ — a German exit from the EU.”
Her position is not shared by other EU politicians, among them Guy Verhofstadt the firebrand former prime minister of Belgium and longtime member of the European Parliament.
He denounced the proposition as “even more stupid” for Germany than for the UK, as it would prove “even more damaging to the unity of Europe and the whole democratic West”.
The AfD’s ideals also seem unlikely to take root amongst the German public, which is currently protesting the party en masse following revelations that leading members of the party attended a covert meeting regarding an immigration “masterplan”.
An expose revealed that party members had discussed mass deportations of foreigners holding German passports, an idea that they reportedly plan to follow through in the event they win power.
Ms Weidel said the expose was “scandalous” and misinterpreted her party’s aims.
But the explanation has not floated well with Germans, millions of whom have turned out to streets in approximately 90 demonstrations across the country.
