German far-right AfD wants to curb EU

The EU's powers should be reduced and her party should field a candidate to become chancellor in the next federal election, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has said ahead of her party's conference, reported dpa.

Alice Weidel dodged the question of whether the EU should be dissolved during an interview on a Friday morning news programme on the German public broadcaster ZDF.

"We are in favour of a reduction of powers in the EU, which is not functioning as it is and is becoming more and more bloated. And it is precisely this question that will be discussed at the party conference," said Weidel.

Only the nation state is the "right vessel for a democracy" because only there can "a social debate be conducted," she said.

Weidel went on to say that the AfD was ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party, the Social Democrats (SPD), in polls and was only 4% behind the main conservative opposition party, the Christian Democrats (CDU) as the second strongest force.

Given that, her party "has to make a claim to leadership, and they only make that claim by putting up a candidate for chancellor."

The party leader felt that the ongoing debate in Germany about cooperation between the CDU and the AfD is "highly undemocratic," adding that the attempts to marginalize her party are untenable anyway.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz recently spoke out against an outright ban on working with the AfD by suggesting they could cooperate at a local level if not in a federal coalition. He drew fierce criticism from inside and outside his party for this.

Especially in eastern German states, she does not see how the CDU will govern in future without the AfD: "Let's see how it looks next year in the state elections in eastern Germany, where we are already by far the strongest force."