Alternative for Germany co-chair Alice Weidel pledged sweeping changes to Germany’s immigration, monetary and economic policies — including permanent border controls, withdrawal from Schengen, the return of Syrians and an eventual exit from the euro — as the AfD heads into September state elections with polling showing unprecedented strength.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Alternative for Germany co-chair Alice Weidel is presenting voters with an expansive blueprint for what an AfD-led government would do with national power, promising to reclaim German control over immigration, borders, monetary policy and industrial regulation as the party seeks to convert record polling strength into governing power.
With a pivotal series of state elections approaching, Weidel said the AfD no longer sees itself simply as an opposition force capable of influencing Germany’s political debate. It intends to take office.
“We will govern in the first federal states,” Weidel said. “And we will also govern at the federal level.”
During ZDF’s summer interview, Weidel outlined an agenda that would represent a major break with decades of German policy, including restoring permanent control of the country’s borders, potentially withdrawing Germany from Europe’s Schengen free-movement system and ultimately abandoning the euro.
Her comments, which were also reported by the Berliner Zeitung, coupled immigration policy with a broader argument that Germany’s current political and economic establishment has failed ordinary workers while surrendering too much national control.
Video of Weidel’s remarks circulated on X as the party sought to frame the coming elections as a referendum not merely on individual policies but on the direction of the German political system itself.
Weidel aimed some of her harshest criticism at Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, accusing political leaders of campaigning on promises they subsequently abandon after taking office.
“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.”
She also targeted the CDU’s longstanding “firewall” against the AfD, under which Germany’s established center-right party refuses to cooperate with Weidel’s party.
Weidel called the firewall “the most undemocratic thing there is” and predicted that continuing the policy would eventually damage the CDU’s ability to win federal elections.
“I am prepared to work with anyone as long as they are capable and have the interests of our country in mind,” Weidel said.
She added that she would not accept Germans being “ridiculed and lied to” by the CDU and SPD.
The most immediate policy break proposed by Weidel concerns immigration.
Rather than relying primarily on European arrangements for managing migration, she said an AfD government would place control of entry directly back in German hands.
“We will close them,” Weidel said when asked about Germany’s borders.
She said Germany would leave the Schengen system if doing so were necessary to enforce that policy.
“This contract is being terminated,” Weidel said.
Schengen generally permits travel among participating European countries without routine internal border checks, although Germany has already reinstated temporary controls along several frontiers.
Weidel argues that the existing framework enables migrants who first reach southern European countries to subsequently travel into Germany.
She cited migrant pressure involving Ceuta, Spain’s enclave on the North African coast, as an example.
“We will withdraw from Schengen so that people like those from Ceuta don’t come to us at all,” Weidel said.
Her proposals extend beyond preventing additional arrivals.
Weidel said an AfD government would substantially increase deportations, reduce naturalizations and end efforts to bring Afghans into Germany.
She also pledged a sweeping reversal involving Syrians who entered Germany during the large migration influx of the previous decade.
“The Syrians will all be returned to their homeland,” Weidel said.
German media have estimated that approximately 1.3 million Syrians live in the country. Any effort to return that population would face questions concerning individual immigration status, German citizenship, asylum protections and applicable German and international law.
The AfD has increasingly incorporated such proposals into what it describes as a broader remigration agenda, linking immigration levels to concerns about social cohesion, crime, integration and the development of parallel communities, particularly among populations arriving from Muslim-majority countries.
Another X post highlighted Weidel’s immigration proposals as migration remained central to the party’s campaign.
Weidel’s proposed break with the status quo also extends to Germany’s currency.
She reaffirmed the AfD’s support for ultimately withdrawing from the euro, arguing that the common European currency has weakened savings and purchasing power and imposed costs on working Germans.
“Germany was significantly better off before the introduction of the euro,” Weidel said.
She blamed the currency for what she called the “broad impoverishment” of working people.
The AfD leader paired that monetary argument with an attack on government intervention in industrial and climate policy.
Weidel called for reversing restrictions on combustion-engine vehicles and said governments should not decide which technologies manufacturers produce or which products consumers purchase.
She described her preferred policy as “market and technology openness.”
When asked how German automakers would remain competitive as demand for electric vehicles grows in China, Weidel maintained that buyers — rather than government mandates — should determine what types of automobiles succeed in the marketplace.
She also challenged the extent of government intervention undertaken in response to man-made climate change, arguing that climate variations have existed throughout history.
Her economic philosophy, she said, amounts to “no intervention in the market and no policy of prohibition.”
AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla delivered a similar message during his own ARD summer interview.
Addressing recent hot weather, Chrupalla called it a “perfectly normal summer” and accused Germany’s federal government of using concern about climate change to support greater government intervention.
He additionally called for eliminating widespread postal voting, saying mail ballots should return to being an exceptional voting method rather than a routine one.
Those policy declarations are being made as the AfD approaches an electoral test that could significantly alter its position within German politics.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the party has been polling above 40% ahead of September’s state election.
Weidel and Chrupalla have publicly expressed confidence that the AfD can enter government at the state level, and lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has been given broad discretion over possible coalition negotiations.
Polling and the AfD’s electoral position were also highlighted on X.
Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are also scheduled to hold elections later in September.
National polling cited in the source material places the AfD ahead of the CDU, reversing the parties’ relative positions in the 2025 federal election and increasing pressure on Germany’s traditional parties as they continue refusing formal cooperation with the AfD.
The September contests consequently carry implications beyond the composition of individual state governments.
If the AfD converts its current polling strength into governing positions, the CDU and other established parties could face mounting pressure over whether they can continue maintaining the political firewall while still assembling viable governing coalitions.
Weidel is using that opportunity to make the choice she wants voters to consider explicit: an AfD government would seek to return greater authority over Germany’s borders, immigration system, currency, energy policy and industrial regulation to the national level.
Opponents of those proposals argue that withdrawing from Schengen or the euro could carry substantial diplomatic and economic consequences.
Weidel, however, is betting that increasing numbers of German voters are prepared for a fundamental departure from the existing system — and the coming state elections will provide the AfD with its next opportunity to demonstrate whether its polling strength can translate into governmental power.
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