Alice Weidel of AfD, Germany’s ‘Far-Right’, is anything BUT. Media lie about her.

22 October 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cGGDu8sgXY

“The full-length interview with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel | The Economist”

21 October 2026, a debate between Britain’s Economist versus Alice Weidel, abbreviated here:

Alice Weidel, thank you for joining me on the insider. >> Thank you for having me. >> … If you were to let’s imagine the German economy is a car. Um, is it in need of a few repairs or is it does it need a whole new economic model? How big is the challenge for the German economy? >> Actually to to be in your picture um you need to restructure and rebuild the entire car because uh the car parts are also broken. And I am going to explain you why that is the case in Germany. Um I think Germany um just looking at the data at the economic data is in a deep crisis and this crisis is uh multifaceted. Um firstly um one major cause is the destroying of our energy infrastructure by the so-called vendor. So, inagi vendor um is the energy transition um policy that was self-inflicted and introduced firstly by the Miracle uh government and then um has been continued by the following governments until now. And these energy policies comprise the um the um um destruction of our infrastructure just like destroying our nuclear power plants. You have to imagine Germany in the past had 19 power plants power plants most most modern ones. So they were just switched off and some uh got some explosive so that they uh that they are basically destroyed, right? Um and now Germany has zero um nuclear power plants. So um I think um Germany has the stupidest and most dumbest or dumbest um energy policy worldwide and it continues. We have the energy transition basing our energy supply solely on wind power and solar power. So when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, we have the so-called don I don’t know the English word. So it is like when you have no power supply basically then we are dependent um on our neighbors importing um energy um for um actually like for tremendously high prices and um all of this leading to the situation in which the energy cost for our companies for the German companies and also for the Germans s are too high. They’re the highest in the world. So therefore, we are not competitive in the uh anymore in the world market and um we face right now skyrocketing bankruptcy rates by uh German companies. Either they go bankrupt or they go abroad. And this is and this is basically the situation here. And I haven’t mentioned yet the high bureaucracy burden by the companies and um and uh >> so it’s interesting that you mentioned both of both of those I think you have some very good points. Germany does have incredibly high energy costs. I think with hindsight many people in the government might agree that shutting down the nuclear reactors did not make sense. Um and you are also and your manifesto last year made very clear you want to cut red tape. both progrowth sensible policies. But your manifesto last year also said that you should that Germany should leave the euro. And this is a policy that really has me scratching my head because most economists would agree that for Germany allowed to leave the euro would be catastrophic for its growth. Now in the last few days there have been some reports that your party may be rethinking its policy towards the euro. So I wonder if you could just state quite clearly should Germany leave the euro. >> Thank you very much for the question and giving me the opportunity to clarify something. Um there is this myth in the um also um stemming from the framing of our party that uh we want to leave the EU and that we want to leave the euro. It’s wrong. Our program states that we would like to reform firstly the European Union. We think that the European Union should be a community of sovereign states um with a free trade area. This is where we came from. What we don’t want is a EU European Union bureaucratic commission with a lot of bureaucrats like a Soviet Union like uh something that um that interferes into your privacy into um into companies telling them what to produce having notches um I would say like um like laws um um bureaucr democracy and also telling the consumers what to buy or what to install. We think that this is very harmful to to a free uh free economy and to a free market system. We also see a um a democratic deficit like the check and balances. So we know all from the political philosophies that we need to have the system of checks and balances on one hand or horizontally but also vertically. So decision should be made by the lowest level of decision making because there you can have control. You can you can um you can make things better uh because you have u the knowledge of decision but not a planned economy like commission that is not elected and the people have no idea how free market system work. >> Is your goal to … As you say, Chancellor Math has an orgy of debt, but one of the reasons Germany’s debt break was lifted was to enable a big increase in defense spending, which is the country has just started. Do you support that increase? And specifically, do you support Germany reaching the target, the NATO target of three and a half% of GDP on hard defense by 2029, which is what the MZ government has said it will do. >> Well, Germany hasn’t spent um even 2%age to the um NATO uh budget in the past. So, we have been lacking quite behind I think at 1% or something 1.2. So therefore um we need to spend more um um but I think um military spending um and defense spending as the word says it should be um invested um in our own uh defense capacities. And now I’m coming to this topic that Germany is in the position right now to be the main financier um and also um giving away our munition and everything to the Ukraine. So we are the main uh main finance of the Ukraine right now. Um the other European states are pulling back. Uh Trump is out already. So therefore our government in our point of view forces a policy which is not only harmful for Germany because it um it um it touches our national security interest um but also um the other European nation states. We think and this is our um our our opinion that this policy being undertaking uh undertaken by the German government right now is very harmful for the national security of Germany and also for the other European states. therefore proposing that we need to go immediately that we need to force um peace talks to end of this terrible war in the Ukraine. >> I think everyone would like the war in Ukraine to end. Let’s unpack what you’re saying here. Firstly, >> not our government actually. >> Well, let’s unpack this. One of the main reasons for the increase in NATO spending and for Germany’s is that many countries in Europe and many people in this country see Russia as a threat. Do you see Russia as a threat beyond Ukraine? Do you think it is a threat to European countries to 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 um evaluated by um by the criterion if it serves our national interest or not and um being um or acting like this as our government uh currently um it leads to a situation that is very harmful um for us. Um I haven’t mentioned the sanctions. Well, while we impose like one sanctioned package after the other, Donald Trump talks with uh Vladimir Putin about um the uh delivery of further diesel and also about um um um oil and gas, right? Well, we would like to have the same thing for Germany because we need to lower our energy cost. So therefore we are very pragmatic. We would like to have a peace um that also serves the uh interest of the Ukrainians and also the uh security interest of Russia. But it is and this is our stance. It is not our war and it’s very dangerous and it’s very costly especially for us. Germany has spent you have to uh um um um imagine this number. Germany has been spent over hundred billion of euros for the war in Ukraine and this is quite dangerous and also endangers um Germany as a state because right now um we could be already a target. … Now it is very important like with this uh so-called drone or attempted drone attack. Well, we haven’t seen any evidence in the parliament. I was just said, but what we have in the um in the um um um in the sea is we have destroyed Nordstream pipelines and that was a state terror attack on the German infrastructure being very harmful for Germany for us like destroying like like an energy infrastructure being being like worth like I don’t know like over like almost 30 billion euros and um like cutting off the entire Europe um cutting off um Europe and especially Germany from Russian uh gas and uh gas especially. And I think like we need to we need to follow the facts and we see that um the um um that the facts like with a terror attacks on uh north stream they are ignored by our politicians and yes please >> 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? >> Well, um it’s as democratic um um as it is. Um they have no elections anymore of a new president. That’s the reason why the American president he claims uh new elections to uh to um for the um president because he thinks that Zelensky is not the right uh person at the right time. Um and um so like the frame >> they don’t have elections right now because it’s in the war and there’s >> but it’s still but it’s still when we talk about um a aggressor and someone not being a aggressor. We also criticized the Russian attack on Ukraine because Ukraine is a sovereign country. Full stop. There’s no discussion about it. … >> Vladimir Putin has no interest in peace. The Ukrainians say they would have a ceasefire. He refuses to have a cease. >> Can you give me one piece of evidence that he is interested in peace? >> Can you give me one piece of evidence that Zelensky is interested in peace? >> He’s constant. He’s offered a an energy ceasefire. Now they are they were in um Florida talking about peace deals. The Ukrainians are absolutely willing to start talking about peace. It is Vladimir Putin who is not interested in the 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 spent that much and we are highly indebted. Yeah. I have the interests 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. …

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.