Landtagswahl: AfD-Jugend stellt sich gegen Weidels Euro-Kurs

In the AfD, a direction dispute regarding the future of the Euro has erupted. Jean-Pascal Hohm, leader of the AfD Youth organization "Generation Deutschland," opposes party chief Alice Weidel's stance. "We do not want a German Euro exit, but to fix the existing design flaws of the Euro system," the 29-year-old told the "Bild" newspaper.

Germany should also remain a member of the Schengen area. Weidel confirmed in a ZDF "Summer interview" that her party's aim in the event of government responsibility is to implement an exit from the Euro and Schengen Agreement and to tighten border controls. Generation Deutschland plans to set their European policy course at their second federal congress in Magdeburg.

According to a spokesperson, 480 participants, guests, and journalists are invited. The dispute comes at a politically sensitive time. In Saxony-Anhalt, a new Landtag election is held on September 6th, followed by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin on September 20th. In recent ARD poll for Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD received 42 percent, while the CDU received 22 percent.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD last polled at 36 percent, ahead of the SPD at 29 percent. Economists criticize Weidel's Euro plan as highly risky. Marcel Fratzscher, President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), attributes Weidel with "a considerable degree of economic incompetence." Exiting the Euro would "force millions of Germans into unemployment and cause significant income losses for citizens," said the DIW President to the Handelsblatt.

The AfD Youth wants Germany to remain in the Schengen area. The Vice President of the Expert Council, Monika Schnitzer, called a possible return to a national currency "backward" and "economically wrong." The economic problems in Germany, such as growing technological competition from China, lack of innovation, or demographic change, cannot be solved by a currency change, according to Schnitzer.

A new German currency would likely devalue, making German exports more expensive and reducing competitiveness. At the moment, the common European economic and monetary area is "one of our most important location advantages." Weidel's demand for a withdrawal from the Schengen area is also criticized by experts. Hohm wants Germany to remain in the Schengen area, but also to significantly tighten European migration policy.

He calls for more fences on EU external borders and a transformation of the Frontex border protection agency into a return agency. Schengen represents a Europe without border controls and allows borderless travel. The Schengen area is considered one of the greatest achievements of the European Union. According to EU Commission figures, there are about 1.25 billion trips across borders within this region each year.

However, several countries in the Schengen area have reintroduced border controls in recent years, including Germany. Delegates aim to vote on a three-part resolution titled "For a Europe of Peoples" at their federal congress. The organization confesses to the European idea and declares it not strictly to reject the EU. It opposes what it perceives as a "policy of ordered migration."

Political decisions should be closer to the member states according to the AfD youth. The EU should only act when individual countries cannot solve a task themselves. The AfD plans to adopt a new basic program next year. Hohm belongs to the Brandenburg AfD Land Association, which the Land Constitutional Protection is classified as securely right-wing extremist.

Main speaker is Ulrich Siegmund, AfD top candidate for the Landtag election in Saxony-Anhalt. Other right-wing up-and-coming politicians from eight EU countries are expected. Just before the meeting, Hohm told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that there is also the issue of tackling the current program process of the AfD. Coming up in Magdeburg is the AfD's second federal congress, closely linked to the mother party.

The organization affiliated with the AfD since 2013, after the former AfD youth organization "Junge Alternative" was dissolved. The JA was a largely independent association, with which the AfD only had limited access. More: "Globalization was the last golden age of liberalism"