Alice Weidel: “This Brussels system is driving us into poverty”

The customs agreement between the European Union and the United States does not benefit the EU, but rather U.S. President Donald Trump, who has “completely taken advantage” of Ursula von der Leyen and the Union, said Alice Weidel, co-chair of the AfD, in an interview published Wednesday on the YouTube channel “Patrióta.”

According to the German politician, the agreement proves that the EU is weak and that everyone should leave it, as it no longer represents either the nation states or the people. “We now pay 15 percent customs duties,” but zero percent would be right, “we need a free internal market, and customs duties harm industry, that is completely obvious, and now we even have to buy American weapons, with European taxpayers’ money for a war in Ukraine that none of us wants,” she emphasized.

“What has happened in this agreement does not reflect the will of the European people,” Alice Weidel said, congratulating Hungary at the same time for “doing much better.” She said

Viktor Orbán shows exactly how to pursue a sensible policy toward the EU in the interests of the Hungarian people.

Heute bin ich wieder in Budapest und unterhalte mich mit @PM_ViktorOrban über aktuelle Themen der EU. Vor uns liegt viel Arbeit um die EU auf ihre Kernaufgaben zu reduzieren. Wir streben ein starkes Europa souveräner Staaten an, in dem der Bürger im Zentrum der Politik steht. pic.twitter.com/w6vmzY2vrj

— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) July 29, 2025

The co-chair of the AfD described Ursula von der Leyen as a corrupt politician. “These people are only working for their own pockets, they are not honest, they lie to the people and ruin our economy, they harm European countries, especially Hungary,” which “is the only country under Viktor Orbán’s leadership that is fulfilling its border protection duties and is being punished by the EU with a billion euros,” she emphasized.

Regarding the automotive industry, the politician said: “The German automotive industry is being ruined, and it is being done from within Europe. All the bad regulations come from the EU. The EU already decided on a fleet restriction in 2018, which means that the emission limits for new vehicle fleets have been set so low that combustion engines have been virtually forced out of the market.

We need free citizens; everyone should be free to decide what they buy, and every company should be free to decide what it produces.

The Union is a system full of bureaucrats that nobody needs, who cause unrest everywhere, are overpaid, and enact regulations that nobody wants,”

she explained. Weidel also pointed out that it is not just about banning combustion engines, but also about new energy regulations, house insulation procedures, and heating systems that are “completely crazy” and would harm Germany in particular.

Referring to Péter Magyar, the chairman of the opposition TISZA party, she said: “The EU’s latest intrigue is to build up a challenger to Viktor Orbán in Hungary.” “This person is an artificial creature, he was artificially created, inflated, and then pushed forward by Brussels, by the woke and green political camp, but there is no real substance behind him,” “I am convinced that he will have no chance in the elections, but this is an attempt to interfere in the political processes of Hungary, an independent country,” she remarked, while also expressing her opinion that Orbán would emerge stronger from this election campaign.

The co-chair of the AfD pointed out that they were struggling with attempts to ban their party, even though 25 percent of the population already voted for them.

They are doing everything they can to bring us down, and they are using all means at their disposal: they are tapping our phones, watching us, inciting the media and stirring up the people against us,”

she said.

Weidel described it as a problem that regulations coming from the EU are expressly damaging to Germany, yet German politicians are not defending themselves against them, but “letting everything go through.” This, she said, was also the reason why the AfD had come into existence in the first place. “Politics is being made here against the German people. We as patriots must make policy for our own people, for families, for taxpayers, for those who pay into the social security system and keep this country, this sovereign state, running,” she explained, adding that her party wants free citizens who can decide freely and who are not oppressed by a state or a state-like formation whose leaders were not even elected by the people.

Weidel explained that Germans today live in worse conditions than they did in the past, and one of the main reasons for this is that they gave up their own currency, even though the German mark was a strong and stable currency. With the euro, a system was created that in many ways resembles the old Italian lira and is becoming an inflationary currency.

Germans are feeling this firsthand as their purchasing power declines and we also have the highest taxes and social security contributions in Europe,”

she added. The politician pointed out that the AfD wants people living in Germany who are financially strong and independent, who have time to think, who have the opportunity to start a family, accumulate wealth, and become rich. In Budapest, on the other hand, she sees a strong middle class, safe streets, a beautiful city, and a noticeably higher standard of living than in Germany; this must be preserved, which is only possible if Hungary remains independent of the Union.

The EU should be returned to its original level, just to the level of a common internal market, because this whole Brussels construct is driving us into poverty,”

she argued. Regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war, Weidel said that the AfD rejects arms deliveries and the deployment of German soldiers to Ukraine and would not provide any financial support to the country, because “this war runs counter to our own security interests,” “is extremely dangerous for Europe,” and it is in our interest that it be ended immediately.

Via Mandiner; Featured photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd