At a press conference held jointly with Orban, Weidel said her country’s ties had worsened in the region, especially with Hungary, as well as with such great powers as Russia, the United States, and China. She said it was her primary task to improve those relations.
Germany has weakened, she insisted, adding that the country had “weak leadership, weak economic policy, ruined energy policy and an ill-advised green policy introduced by Angela Merkel”.
“Merkel ruined our country,” Weidel said, adding that her country was suffering from illegal migration, “imported crime”, and a high rate of juvenile delinquency. She claimed employees in Germany were paying the highest taxes.
If AfD gets into power, it will “follow the path of Hungary, the “role model” and put Germany “back on its feet”, she pledged. “We want to be proud of our country the way you are proud of yours,” she said to Orbán, calling Hungary a “symbol of common sense, sovereignty and independence”.
She noted that as chancellor candidate she vowed to tackle illegal migration and take steps in the interest of a rational energy policy, rational energy prices and major tax cuts. She said Hungary was also a model for Germany when it came to freedom of expression, adding that she wanted Germany to be a free and sovereign country that had good relations with its neighbors and both East and West.
Weidel argued that the European Union had to be reformed from within through strong and self-conscious nations, and called for dismantling the EU’s “bureaucratic, expensive and corrupt construct”.
In response to a question, she said it was a mistake to fine Hungary for the measures it has taken against illegal migration. She said the Schengen system should have been scrapped “long ago”, arguing that the conditions for its original aim of securing the external borders while abolishing the internal ones were no longer met.
Weidel said she considered it important for there to be a “strong, free and conservative voice in Europe”, adding that Europe, Germany and France were all “without leadership”, when it was important to be able to sit down and negotiate with the new U.S. president.
She said AfD wanted peace in Ukraine, accusing the German ruling parties and the EU of “feeding an escalation spiral”. In response to a question, she rejected the view that AfD was a “far-right” party, calling for the need to “dispel this myth”.
She said this label had been tagged on her party by the Germany secret services. Asked about her gender and family policies, Weidel said the traditional family was a “guiding principle” for her party, because “just about 100 percent of children grow up in such families”.
Weidel said she was a liberal who lives with another woman raising two boys, adding, however, that this did not hold her back from standing by a principle that was important as the fundamental unit of society.
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