Demands in Germany call for reconsidering membership in NATO

Co-chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Tino Kruppala, announced that Berlin must reconsider its affiliation with NATO.
He stressed that if the military alliance dominated by the United States did not take into account the interests of European countries, “including Russia’s interests.”

NATO and Russia

Speaking to the Welt newspaper, Kruppala said, “Europe was forced to implement the interests of the United States. We reject that.”
He continued, “At the present time, NATO is not a defensive alliance. A defensive group must accept and respect the interests of all European countries, including the interests of Russia.”
He continued, “If NATO cannot guarantee this, Germany must ask to what extent this alliance is still useful to us?”

Alternative for Germany party

The far-right party has 18-19% of vote intentions in opinion polls conducted before early elections expected to be held on February 23, after voting on a motion of no confidence on Monday that will likely lead to the dissolution of the House of Representatives.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself launched the mechanism for dissolving Parliament by submitting a request to vote on a motion of no confidence after the fall of his government coalition in November.
The Alternative for Germany’s chances of forming a government remain very slim, as the remaining parties have ruled out any cooperation with the far-right party.

Electoral successes

But the party may achieve remarkable electoral successes after its victory in Thuringia, a region of former Soviet Germany.
The party strongly criticized Germany’s military support for Ukraine and called for a quick solution to the war that Russia started in February 2022. Krubala said, “The German government must finally reach a point where it wants to put an end to the war.”
He stated that “Russia won this war. Reality has overcome those who claim that they want to make Ukraine capable of winning the war.”