Alexander Gauland: European Nations Wish to Decide for Themselves Whom They Accept Into Their Community

Alexander Gauland is the co-leader of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany) and a member of the Bundestag. Mr. Gauland gave the speech below a few days ago in the Bundestag, and it was the proximate cause of Chancellor Merkel’s notorious exit from the chamber. Early in his speech Mr. Gauland addressed the Chancellor directly, and immediately after that Mrs. Merkel walked out in a huff.

Many thanks to Ava Lon and Egri Nök for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00   Mr. President,
00:05   Mr. President, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen;
00:10   Madame Chancellor, she was still here not long ago;
00:15   yes, she’s here! Madame Chancellor, your explanation contains little
00:20   in the way of concrete things, and where it does contain concrete things, we
00:25   mostly don’t agree, but this isn’t going to surprise you. You say
00:30   in your explanation that we need a European asylum system that
00:35   is crisis-proof and shows solidarity, and you talk about spreading the refugees in a fair way
00:40   within the EU. But you do know that the Eastern Europeans —
00:45   and justly so — will never be ready to implement a distribution
00:50   of refugees inside the EU. Mr. Tusk [Pres. European Council, former Polish PM] explained it to us
00:55   in a clear and friendly way.
01:00   I can say it more clearly or better:
01:05   the nations wish to decide for themselves whom they accept into their community.
01:11   There is no national obligation for diversity; we must
01:16   say it — especially to the Greens.
01:21   And, ladies and gentlemen, the Eastern Europeans have historic experiences
01:26   that brought them to this position.
01:31   They were ruled by the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years.
01:36   They were — unfortunately — enslaved by Germans in World War 2.
01:41   And afterwards they were oppressed by the Soviet Union for forty years.
01:46   Those are the life experiences of peoples who now
01:51   insist on self-determination and national identity,
01:56   and in that they don’t want to have anything at all to do with the EU’s mandatory,
01:59   forced distribution system.
02:06   They won’t accept being told whom they have to take in.
02:11   And therefore it’s wrong to make the distribution of the structure-forming funds —
02:16   and this happened before — dependent on those countries’ acceptance or non-acceptance of refugees.
02:22   Mr. Gauland, would you take a question right now? — No, thank you, not now.
02:27   Besides, this idea is typically German, in the bad way.
02:32   In a way that we actually didn’t want to ever be again,
02:37   after World War 2. This is — sorry to say it so clearly —
02:42   political blackmail, if you make the distribution of funds dependent on that.
02:47   Germany goes from being a teacher
02:52   to a disciplinarian and then to paymaster:
02:57   You get money if you behave. We didn’t want that
03:02   ever again, either, in German politics.
03:07   But let me say something about another issue: through Brexit
03:12   300 seats will be freed up in the European Parliament.
03:17   And the EU Parliament is proposing to redistribute 27 seats, and keep
03:20   the rest for later, as savings for the future.
03:27   Mr. [Dietmar] Bartsch [Die Linke] was right to point out— why not save all of them?
03:32   there are fewer members, there are
03:37   fewer tasks, so it makes sense to have fewer MEPs.
03:42   But I’m already guessing what’s in store.
03:47   and Mrs. [Andrea] Nahles [SPD] and Mr. [Christian] Lindner [FPD] have already talked about
03:52   those trans-national lists, and those saved seats are supposed to be there for that,
03:57   even if we aren’t there yet. But this, ladies and gentlemen,
04:03   is a boarding ticket for the United States of Europe,
04:08   which Mr. Schulz called for — for the year 2025.
04:13   And we don’t want this. We want cooperation among nation states.
04:23   The vessel in which reside liberty
04:28   and self-determination — I’ve already said it here — is the nation state.
04:33   This quote isn’t mine, by the way,
04:38   but from the big liberal Lord [Ralf Gustav] Dahrendorf.
04:43   Most of you in the House might still be thinking that
04:48   Europe is a German replacement identity, so to speak,
04:53   a further expression of German exceptionalism.
04:58   Other Europeans don’t see it that way, and they’re more practical.
05:03   The Austrians and the Dutch have already explained that
05:09   they don’t want to send any more money for trans-national dreams,
05:14   and this shouldn’t be our path either, and AfD
05:19   will make it clear that the majority in this society supports this [AfD view].
05:24   Thank you.
 

5 thoughts on “Alexander Gauland: European Nations Wish to Decide for Themselves Whom They Accept Into Their Community

  1. Thank you Gates of Vienna (et al) for translating and broadcasting material like this, the resistance is not being televised. It seems more often nowadays that the spectrum and bandwidth of public opinion and viewpoints is being restricted and therefore your work is more needed to become truly politically informed. (Longtime reader but this is the first-time I have commented on this site. Alexander Gauland is clearly not the bogeyman (or even nazi/fascist) he and his party is being portrayed as but rather an intelligent and rational observer of world events.

    • Agreed. Mr. Gauland’s speech was rational and thoughtful. Although there are some extremists in AfD, so too there are some in the mainstream German political parties. In comparison to her opponents, Ms. Merkel is about as articulate as a teletubby. She has failed to cogently explain her passion for the Euro and unvetted mass immigration from the Third World.

    • welcome here and you are right! Unlike all the other parties, the AfD has a huge number of very qualified people with professional careers behind them, many PhDs. In contrast, the newly appointed secretary for integration has 9 years of law under her belt, but no bar exam.The same goes for many of the greens. Their frontwoman and co- chairperson of parliament C.Roth has one year of theater- science( whatever that may be) and years of roadie- activity for a left wing anarchist rock band.

  2. Thank you for the translating for observers who don’t speak German. It’s great to see Germans standing up against continental imperialism and fascism in the guise of the EU and retrograde immigration policies. It’s comforting to see that the 68er generation is finally becoming active in social justice and peace activism through the Afd (Alternative für Deutschland).
    I was worried about the return of fascism in the guise of the EU and the rise of violent political fascist intimidation through Antifascist activists, but perhaps there is hope for social justice and tolerance after all in Europe! – from an American who spent childhood years in pre-Merkel Austria and Germany.
    I know many Europeans don’t comment here, when they could because of fascism currently extent in Germany France and England. Someday perhaps, we can again expel this societal menace of totalitarianism from Europe. It’s good to see resistance efforts in Europe.

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