Dreyer sharply criticizes AfD: "Say what they stand for"
The Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, has called on people to keep saying what the AfD stands for politically. In order to counter the AfD, an outcry alone is no longer enough; "we must also tell people what the AfD actually stands for", said Dreyer at the SPD state party conference in Mainz on Saturday. So that people "don't just succinctly say, I know that the (AfD) are right-wing extremists, so what?".
Dreyer emphasized that the AfD's programme stands for a completely different society. "The AfD uses the language of populists and has close links to the Putin dictatorship." It is against "a Europe as we imagine it and it is also against Nato".
Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost with the AfD, said Dreyer. "The AfD is also damaging our business location. A state like Rhineland-Palatinate, which is an exporting state, could never be successful with a party like the AfD."
According to the AfD, disabled children are not entitled to a place in a mainstream school. This party is against the minimum wage, against strong trade unions, against a fair welfare state, against foreigners and homosexuals. "Everything we perceive as a free, tolerant world is the AfD's counter-program." In order for the AfD to become smaller again in the next state parliament, the people must be told again and again what it stands for, Dreyer demanded to great applause from the delegates.
SPD state leader Roger Lewentz had previously described the "alleged alternative" as a "dirty pool of populists, right-wing extremists and also Nazis" and criticized the CDU's "alleged firewall" to the AfD as "not even a screen".
General Secretary Marc Ruland said: "Our democracy is under threat from the far right." He warned that the AfD wanted to undermine democracy throughout Germany from within.
At the SPD state party conference, Malu Dreyer urged the crowd to continuously explain the anti-democratic policies of the AfD, such as their opposition to mainstream education for disabled children and the minimum wage. Additionally, Dreyer highlighted the SPD's contrasting stance against the AfD, as they stand for a fair welfare state, strong trade unions, and inclusion of all groups, including foreigners and homosexuals.
Source: www.dpa.com
