Germany's AfD weighs shift from anti-EU roots, strategy paper shows

Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are advocating a shift in the party's long-standing opposition to Germany's membership ‌in the European Union and the euro, according to a strategy paper seen by Reuters on Monday.

The move would mark a change in one of the founding principles of the AfD, which was created in 2013 largely in opposition to euro zone bailout policies and has long advocated the dissolution ‌of the currency union or Germany's exit from it. The paper, first reported by Bild newspaper, calls for a wholesale renegotiation of ‌EU treaties to turn the bloc into a looser alliance of sovereign nations. If those efforts fail, a referendum on Germany's membership should be held, it said.

The paper also advocates national opt-outs from areas such as migration, fiscal policy and jointly issued EU debt, but it does not fundamentally oppose the euro currency. The paper was ⁠produced by ​AfD lawmakers from the European Parliament, ⁠Germany's lower house of parliament and its state parliaments, and discussed at a meeting last month.

A party convention next year would sign off on any change to its ⁠decade-old policy platform. Peter Boehringer, the AfD's parliamentary spokesman on European affairs and a long-time critic of the euro, rejected suggestions that the paper marked a policy ​reversal.

He said the proposal to renegotiate EU treaties and pursue reform before considering an eventual withdrawal was consistent with longstanding AfD ⁠policy and described the document as an implementation plan for existing positions rather than a change of course. The party's current programme calls for Germany to leave the euro and ⁠ultimately ​replace the EU with a new European framework.

The AfD has steadily expanded its support by campaigning against migration following an influx of people fleeing war in the Middle East in 2015, a strategy that has helped it achieve a series of election successes, most recently ⁠in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD, which came second in last year's national election after Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives, aims to enter the federal government by ⁠2029. Germany's mainstream political parties refuse to ⁠cooperate with the AfD, which the domestic intelligence agency has branded as "right-wing extremist," a characterisation the party rejects.

Party co-leader Alice Weidel described the euro as a "soft currency" in an interview with broadcaster ZDF in ‌August but stopped short of ‌explicitly calling for Germany to quit the currency.