‘Slaves Don’t Fight’: AfD’s Weidel Speaks Exclusively to The American Conservative

Foreign Affairs

‘Slaves Don’t Fight’: AfD’s Weidel Speaks Exclusively to The American Conservative

Weidel’s comments to the mag come as she brokers new alliances in the States—principally with Elon Musk.

Ms. Weidel, thank you for agreeing to talk to The American Conservative. In a recent Bloomberg interview, you mentioned that you’re a libertarian in your position on taxation and the war in Ukraine. And yet you’re considered far-right in Germany for your immigration stance and your position on the EU. To clarify, for the public, are you in favor of staying within the EU or leaving the EU, as it is increasingly unreformable?

I have to thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about these things. To be clear: neither I nor my party are right-wing extremists. You must know that in Germany this accusation is a battle cry of the left, which dominates the public discourse. The left doesn’t even think it’s necessary to provide evidence for this accusation. No matter what, in their eyes anything that doesn’t want to be like them is “right-wing extremist.”

Regarding your question about leaving the EU: It’s really a simple calculation. Germany does not need the EU to survive; however, the reverse is very much the case. Nevertheless, the EU behaves as if it is exactly the opposite. They act as if we Germans have to put our vital interests aside in order not to endanger the “European project.” This is a grotesque distortion. Either the EU learns to take our national interests into account, or it will be gone.

The decision is therefore entirely up to the EU in determining how Germany will behave. However, one thing is certain: The EU must thoroughly abandon the credo of the past that a strong Germany means a weak Europe, and therefore Germans should not develop an awareness of their national interests for the good of everyone. The fact is that it’s historical nonsense. We are and will remain the heart of Europe forever. The day this heart stops beating, Europe will die.

Your co-leader Tino Chrupalla recently said that Germany is being forced to do America’s bidding and that NATO isn’t an alliance in Europe’s interest. In reality though, we have seen, on one hand, that most Americans are unwilling to further involve the U.S. or to fund the war in Ukraine, and on the other, that most Europeans, from the Baltics to Poland to Britain and France, as well as the EU superstructure, want more support for Ukraine. How do you address this contradiction?

Things are a bit complex, so please excuse me if I digress a bit. The United States is undoubtedly a unique global superpower that has spread its vast influence worldwide. This is what we usually call an empire. However, it is a strange empire: an empire that rules the world from Monday to Wednesday but doesn’t want to do so again from Thursday to Sunday. This is the eternal battle between expansionists and isolationists that has probably been raging since the independence of the U.S.

That makes it a bit difficult for other nations, especially for us Germans. On the one hand, the American leadership complains, for example, about Germany’s energy policy, which—in geopolitical views, this is self-explanatory—wants to come to an agreement with Russia. What kind of wild anger did the construction of Nord Stream ignite on the American side? How dare we. We all still have the images in our minds of President Joe Biden publicly humiliating Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an unspeakable way over Nord Stream.

Well, then Nord Stream was eliminated in an act of war. The current German federal government’s fear of not pointing the finger at the attacker under any circumstances says it all. Is this what the U.S. wants? Germany as a colony? A colony that doesn’t have the right to decide about its own energy policy? A nation that does not have the right to follow its own path, wherever it may lead? The U.S. can do all this as the shining winner of history. But then they have to want it too, they have to say it too, so that we can adapt to it.

Because we Germans are a defeated people. “Anything that has lost its independence has at the same time lost the ability to intervene in the flow of time and to freely determine its content,” describes the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Such people “from now on no longer have any time of their own, but count their years according to the events and periods of foreign nations and empires.” We Germans have lived in this situation for a long time, definitely to the advantage of the U.S. But we as individuals also benefited from it, I won’t deny that.

Being a slave also has advantages. It is the noblest right of a servant not to take part in his master’s battles, but to enjoy peace. But the U.S. leadership doesn’t like that either. The many wars of the last 30 years, in Europe, in the Middle East, we were expected to participate in all of them at the request of the U.S. But why should we? We no longer have to fight wars, we already said goodbye to history. Due to that, we have disfigured our military beyond recognition.

But now, when we have reached the point of absolute nullity, our political leaders have discovered enthusiasm for war. Belligerence has become a state-mandated madness not seen since the end of the last world war. Opposition-leading CDU is currently outdoing the ruling parties in who can make the loudest, most vulgar war cry. All this despite complete military incompetence. What we see here are, really and truly, the wild sexual fantasies of impotent people. We will end this grotesque charade as quickly as possible.

We will coordinate with the U.S. on this. But for that, the U.S. has to know what world they want to live in. Because if it has to be an empire, then you need to fight for it yourself, sacrifice your blood and goods. Don’t expect the unfree to take over this fight for you. This is impossible. There will be no such thing. A slave who fights will invariably demand freedom as a reward. But freedom also means that people will go their own way and seek their own happiness. If they don’t, they are slaves. And slaves don’t fight. Don’t accuse them of that.

Therefore, when President Donald Trump demands that Germany must take responsibility for its own security in the future, he should also be clear about the full consequences. That we will listen kindly to his concerns about Nord Stream and our energy supply, but that we will make our own decisions and he must accept them, whether he likes them or not. We Germans have lost this spirit of freedom; other nations have fought for it and preserved it, like the Baltic states you mentioned.

Let’s assure these Baltic states of your full support. But tell them that they must give up control of their energy supply; American corporations will decide on that in the future. Tell them that their borders must be relinquished; whoever enters their country and settles would be regulated by the EU in the future. You can be very sure that under such conditions, these freedom-loving peoples would immediately stop their calls for support. The contradiction that you think you identify has a lot to do with the contradictory self-image of the U.S.

Elon Musk has thrown his support behind you, as well as Nigel Farage in Britain. Are we seeing a Europe wide tech-right emerging? If so, what are the challenges ahead?

We are extremely grateful for this support. I wouldn’t describe this as the emergence of a “Europe-wide tech-right.” In reality, the political left has built up an enormous monopoly of opinion for many decades. This is even more the case here in Germany than in the U.S., primarily because there are many more state-controlled institutions here, dominated by leftists. For example, we have a public broadcaster that is financed with eight billion euros every year. This is unique worldwide. Therefore, we should talk about a “tech-left.” But this monopoly is crumbling.

Nowadays, anyone can produce their own programs with little effort and make them available to a potential audience of millions. If you add an entrepreneurial genius like Elon Musk with his burning love for free speech, then Goliath’s purse containing eight billion euros can no longer form the public view in the way the leftists want it to. This has less to do with any “tech-right” than with simple freedom of expression. Leftists rarely have arguments, they just insult their opponents. So far, that has been enough. But President Donald Trump’s inspiring victory has shown that monopoly is breaking.

This is the cause of the outrageous anger of the EU elites against Musk. They fear us, they fear freedom. Above all, they fear free speech.

From Giorgia Meloni in Italy to the Le Pens in France, we have seen moderation of platforms to attain governing power. If you have to form any coalition, however unlikely, in Germany, which positions of your party are you willing to compromise on, and which ones are redlines?

We don’t have to compromise. The only German party that is still ahead of us in the polls is the CDU. Why is that? Because the CDU simply copies our party program as its own demands for the election campaign. That’s really unbelievable, but it’s actually true right down to individual formulations. Of course, they don’t want to implement any of this. It’s just a lie. The CDU has ruled out a coalition with us, so only the left remains.

Perhaps the CDU will once again betray its voters, as it has done many times before. But I think this time will be their last betrayal. Because there is now an Alternative for Germany, whether or not we obtain the majority. Maybe the CDU is going to catch their very last chance by entering into a coalition with us. Then we will simply implement what the CDU itself demanded in the election campaign. Either way, we will impose our will.

There are also discussions on German rearmament and NATO reforms. Can you lay out your and your party’s positions on those in clear terms for the American audience?

The need for reform is immense. You must know that we have probably the most inefficient armed forces in the world. It almost doesn’t matter which country would attack us; we’d be defeated by almost everyone. When Ukraine demanded weapons from Germany following the Russian invasion, we initially only provided them with helmets. The Ukrainian authorities thought we intended to insult them. But we actually couldn’t give anything else away. What we have delivered to Ukraine since then have been the still-functional weapon systems from our depots. However, now we can’t anymore. Everything is almost used up.

Astonishingly, we already spend over 50 billion euros on the defense budget every year. That’s at least two-thirds of the Russian defense budget. This situation is truly surreal. We can no longer afford to spend so much money on so little. Yes, an AfD-led government will significantly increase the defense budget, but we will also use the money more wisely. This complete inefficiency is the real problem. In this way, the German armed forces are not our only problem child. The situation is the same in the education system, for example. We are suffocating in all areas of life due to a paralyzing, money-consuming bureaucracy.

NATO is currently in the process of redefining itself. We are excited to see what direction the new American president will set. We can’t say much about it ourselves; it will unfold in the next few years. However, one thing is already certain: The previous NATO had a very strong division of labor. Different nations took on different tasks, with us Germans securing a place on the stage. As I said, this worked well as long as the U.S. was willing to maintain its leadership in Europe. For example, if the U.S. now focuses more on the Pacific, that will have to change.

Then personal responsibility will be the order of the day. But our armed forces are not prepared for this. We have given logistics a completely unhealthy preponderance over the fighting force. As a result, we are unable to carry out major military operations independently. German politicians like to sell this to foreign countries as pacifism. But in my eyes, a pacifist is someone who could wage war, but doesn’t, and instead desperately seeks peace because he loves it. On the other hand, a man who hopes for peace because he can’t defend himself is not a pacifist. He’s just a snowman hoping for the longest winter possible.

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