How Germany's far-right are calling for EU to be dismantled and made into powerless 'confederation of nations'
Local election campaign rally in Dresden for AfD
REUTERS
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The German far right wants to dismantle the EU and rebuild it as a confederation of nations with limited power.
Germany's AfD party, led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla has never shied away from its harsh criticism of Europe - but now as the EU elections loom they have stepped up their anti-EU rhetoric.
Marc Jongen, EU candidate for AfD and considered a senior voice within the party said: "The AfD wants to strengthen our national sovereignty and limit the power of the EU to what is necessary and conducive."
He told Euractiv, that nation states need to prevent the EU from turning itself into a "European superstate."
There is a fear within Germany that the nation would just become a 'puppet' of the EU and it's "permanent paymaster", he added.
Co-Chair Tino Chrupalla said as campaigns for EU election kicked off this weekend said: “We are not anti-European, […] but we no longer want this EU,”
The policy aligns with some of the anti-EU rhetoric spoken by other right-wing party leaders across Europe including Marine Le Pen in France and Giorgia Meloni in Italy.
The AfD has not been without controversy with EU candidates being surrounded by a number of scandals.
It comes as European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen sharply attacked far-right parties such as the German AfD who are standing for the European Union parliamentary election, telling them to "clean up their house" and get rid of Kremlin propaganda.
"When I see what your AfD colleagues, the lead candidates, have done, they are under investigation for being in the pocket of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," von der Leyen said in a debate with several other candidates on the future of the EU organised by Politico late on Monday.
She was responding to Anders Vistisen from the rightist Danish People's Party, alluding to the arrest last week of an assistant to the lead candidate of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Maximilian Krah, on espionage charges.
In the debate, Vistisen accused von der Leyen of rallying support for Ukraine in its war against Russia only to grab more power.
"If you look at the electoral program (of the far right), you will see that it echoes the lies and the propaganda of the Kremlin. So clean up your house before you criticize us," von der Leyen said
Nationalist anti-immigration parties plan to join forces following the upcoming European Union parliamentary election, looking to create a new bloc to shake up the EU, officials from four groups said at the beginning of April.