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15 May, 2017 15:44

‘German establishment economically incompetent & morally rotten’ – AfD member

‘German establishment economically incompetent & morally rotten’ – AfD member

As Angela Merkel's CDU party scores a win in a key state election, Hansjoerg Mueller of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) describes the establishment is politically corrupt, as the country needs a party that wouldn’t bend down to it.

Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) beat Martin Schulz’s Social Democrats (SDP) in a state election in Germany’s most populous region of North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday. The CDU received 33 percent of the votes, while the SDP - who've had control of the state for most of the post-war period - got 31.2 percent.

Germany is due to hold federal elections on September 24.

RT asked Hansjoerg Mueller of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), how expected the victory of Merkel’s conservatives was.

“It is sort of surprise for me because North Rhine-Westphalia faces huge problems. Maybe you remember the sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve two years ago and the huge problems with the educational system. As usual in these times it is not the key competence of Social Democrats to solve these questions when it is about the security of the citizens. It is a more the key competence of Christian Democrats. But what really bothers me, it would have been more the key competence of our party, AfD. Unfortunately, we are still too young, we have existed only for four years, and I think we’re not so present in the Western mass media that we could not get it over to the voters yet,” he said.

Sunday’s election was seen as the final test ahead of the autumn's general election. Merkel's CDU had already won in Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein before this.

In Mueller’s opinion though, the more confident Merkel is feeling now, following her party’s success, “the better are the chances for us to prepare ourselves in the background and then come with the huge power to the federal elections as the AfD party.”

According to some opinion polls, the Alternative for Germany party has been losing popularity recently.

“We were close to 15 per cent a half a year ago – now we’re between 8-10 per cent,” the AfD member said.

According to two Mueller, two key points explain that.

“The first is that we have been doing some infighting instead of taking on the political opponents, and the voters do not appreciate it. We could solve this three weeks ago when we had a big party congress in Cologne. From back then we do not do more infighting, we’re now concentrating our energy toward the political opponents,” he said.

“There is another point that bothers me more. Before this party congress three weeks ago in Cologne, there was some contradiction between the so-called real political strategy in the AfD and the so-called fundamental political strategy in the AfD. For sure three weeks ago we solved that we won’t pursue any more of this so-called real political strategy because of this, in fact, meant that we were submitting our party to the power of the establishment,” he said.

“The right to exist for the AfD party is that we don’t agree with the establishment because the establishment is economically incompetent, it is politically corrupt and morally completely rotten. The citizens who are interested in better future, better hope for the country for Germany need a political party that’s not bent down before the establishment, but a political party that has the power to fight the establishment,” Mueller said.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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