AfD leader Alice Weidel says her party would abolish the euro and "close" Germany's borders if it wins a majority at federal level. The euro, she said, is an "unstable currency", a "soft currency", speaking on Sunday in the ZDF summer interview. Citing internal security, the party leader said the AfD would "close" the borders and withdraw from Schengen. All Syrians would be "returned to their homeland".
Weidel said the AfD stands by the sentence in its federal election manifesto stating that Germany must leave the euro system. "You have a huge redistribution when you have an unstable currency." Germany, she said, had been doing "considerably better" before the euro was introduced. "We are seeing widespread impoverishment among working sections of the population."
In the interview, the AfD chairwoman criticised the "open borders – anyone can get in". Internal security, she said, suffers as a result. "We say quite clearly: we are closing the borders." Referring to the mass influx of migrants into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, she said the AfD would withdraw from Schengen. "So this treaty will be terminated." The Schengen agreement provides that there are normally no checks at the borders between member states.
Weidel criticised the fact that refugees in Germany are not being returned. "We were told at the time that if the reason for fleeing no longer applies, they will all be returned. Nothing of the sort is happening." She said 1.3 million Syrians were living in Germany – "the Syrians will all be returned to their homeland". Germany, she said, must stop "naturalising people who ought to be leaving our country".
Looking towards the upcoming state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, Weidel was confident of victory. "We will be governing in the first federal states," she said on ZDF. "And we will also govern at federal level." The AfD, she said, would show people "what we can do".
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