AfD's Chrupalla demands end to Ukraine aid; SPD's Miersch calls him 'Putin's stooge'
In a debate ahead of the EU summit, the opposition attacked Merz: the AfD wants its own energy deals, the Greens a strong EU budget, the Left Party money for social needs.
Photo: Olaf Kosinsky / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · Deutscher Bundestag · youtube.com
Germany's parliament held a heated debate after Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a policy statement ahead of the EU summit in Brussels on Oct. 15-16. Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), accused the government of failing on reforms and endangering social peace. He demanded an end to what he called “by now endless financial and military support” for Ukraine, said Germany should negotiate its own energy supply contracts and suggested Merz use former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a channel to Russia.
Social Democratic parliamentary leader Matthias Miersch countered that the speech showed what the AfD thinks of Europe, telling Chrupalla: “You are a stooge of Putin, who is already physically attacking us.” Greens parliamentary leader Britta Haßelmann accused Merz of playing with fire by threatening failure in talks on the EU's 2028-2034 budget. “Strengthening Europe must be the result of these budget deliberations, not weakening it,” she said.
Left Party parliamentary leader Sören Pellmann called for EU funds to go to industry, research and social cohesion rather than rearmament. Thorsten Frei, parliamentary leader of Merz's CDU/CSU bloc, said the government could not support the Commission's proposed increase of the EU budget from 1.2 trillion euros to about 2 trillion euros. Merz had rejected claims by the AfD and the Left Party that aid to Ukraine comes at the expense of social spending.