Germany is “wrong” to finance Ukraine war: Alice Weidel interview — The Economist

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: do you see russia as a threat beyond ukraine do you think it is a threat to european countries to [00:00:06] Speaker 2: nato members i think it's not a question about threat or not being a threat i think german foreign or germany's foreign policy should be evaluated by by the criterion if it serves our national interest or not and being or acting like this is our government currently it leads to a situation that is very harmful for us i haven't mentioned the sanctions well while we impose like one sanctioned package after the other donald trump talks with vladimir putin about the delivery of further diesel and also about um um oil and gas right well we would like to have the same thing [00:01:04] Speaker 1: for germany do you not think it is appropriate for germany and for other west european countries to support a country that is a democratic country trying to defend itself against this outright aggression [00:01:17] Speaker 2: well it's as democratic as it is they have no elections anymore of a new president that's a reason why the american president he claims new elections to to for the president because he thinks that selenski is not the right person at the right time um and um so like the frame they don't have an action right now because it's yes yes but it's still but it's still when we talk about a aggressor and someone not being an aggressor we also criticized the russian attack on ukraine because ukraine is a sovereign country full stop there's no discussion about it but now as you said before we are in the state status quo right now and the status quo is terrible not only for the people dying and for the families losing their sons and the damaging of infrastructures refineries with skyrocketing diesel prices um and um incredibly high security risk for all countries especially european countries so therefore we need to put this to an end and this is in this is in our because i'm a german politician i have to judge every foreign policy of germany is it in our national interest or is it not the prolongation and the measures being taken by the german governments right now impose a huge risk on our country and we think i think it is wrong to continue with a prolongation of a financing of a already lost war the ukraine unfortunately you can say really like the ukraine is too small the ukraine cannot win against russia it is [00:03:25] Speaker 1: impossible when you say what are we doing already lost war yes but vladimir putin has no interest in peace the ukrainians say they would have a ceasefire this is what you say can you give me one piece of evidence that he is interested in peace can you give me one piece of evidence that selensky is interested in peace he's constant he's offered a an energy ceasefire now they are they were in florida talking about peace peace deals the ukrainians are absolutely willing to start talking about peace it is vladimir putin who is not interested in a peace deal because he thinks that he can pulverize ukrainian cities over the winter as he is now doing and it seems to me that what you are suggesting and i just want to make sure i've understood this you are suggesting stopping all german financial and military support all european support is that right is that your preferred policy we already spent over 100 billion no other country has spent that much and we are highly [00:04:19] Speaker 2: that much and we are highly indebted yeah i have the interest of my country first it's germany first and this war is not in our interest and it's very it's very dangerous for our national security in order to have a peace in the ukraine we need to take not only ukraine security interest into account but also russia security interest into account and this was in the past and this is and this has been the major mistake like the 20 years before to not acknowledging the security concerns of russia marine le pen is [00:05:02] Speaker 1: arguing for more ecb financing of infrastructure of course and so forth and so cheap for france you have she is likely she is leading in the polls too she may well become president of france what is a europe going to look like if you're leading it with your views and marine le pen is leading it with her [00:05:22] Speaker 2: views germany is the main financier of the eu and france receives the money as well as other countries of course she wants to from her perspective i would do the same thing she she wants to do the best thing for her country she wants to have free debt financing even though france is already in a huge debt crisis like with skyrocketing interest rates i don't know what they're going to do at the capital markets right but germany already is in the same situation almost in the same situation our state debt is skyrocketing [00:06:00] Speaker 1: isn't there a risk that as financial markets digest what you're saying and what she's saying that europe [00:06:07] Speaker 2: really does have a bond market crisis oh certainly certainly we're going to have a bond market crisis so with such a high state debt and it's not only france it's also italy spain portugal and it's also germany so with this new debt program of germany we already have rising interest rates at the capital market and we are also a indebted country i think there are many people of foreign background who are [00:06:39] Speaker 1: very frightened by the afd in this country so it would be helpful i think for you to be very clear on this people who are here legally whether they are syrian or afghani or whatever they can and are well they [00:06:51] Speaker 2: can stay here and they are welcome by you well to be honest our law states our asylum law states that in the case that the reason um for coming to our country like especially for the syrians uh let's stay at that example because you mentioned that um that the reason is gone right um for being here because they are refugees asylum seekers any shelter here they get tons of money from the state but it doesn't matter not right now they have to go back to their country they have to leave our country the law enforcement is very clear in germany 100 of the syrians because the war ended in syria 100 of the syrian citizens have to go back to their country as well as the afghans which our government decided to actually fly into our country i don't know like how you would possibly come to this obnoxious policy to fly in afghans out of afghanistan because our crime rate has been skyrocketing since 2015 since the border opening and the main group of the of the worst crimes like raping like killing people roheidsdelikte it's called roheidsdelikte so the main category are syrians and afghans so we need to send these people back and we need to detain um criminals and also um religious extremist leaders we don't want a califat in our country and i haven't mentioned um the ukrainians also the ukrainians have to leave our country um when this war um will be end it so and this is this is the sum of millions of people because it adds up to four to five million four roughly and they have to leave our country