AfD parliamentary chief Markus Frohnmaier has urged dialogue to resolve the Ukraine conflict<\/p>\n
A senior lawmaker from Germany\u2019s largest opposition party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has rejected the government\u2019s claim that Russia poses a threat to the country.
\nMarkus Frohnmaier, who leads the right-wing AfD in the Bundestag, also dismissed allegations that the party is working on Moscow\u2019s behalf. The AfD has long criticized military aid to Ukraine and argued that Berlin should instead focus on diplomacy.
\n\u201cI stand for German interests,\u201d Frohnmaier said on Tuesday in a televised debate with Norbert Roettgen of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
\nHe went on to say that Germany should not \u201cget involved in a foreign war\u201d and has no obligation to defend Ukraine, which is not a NATO member.
\nAsked if Russia poses a threat, Frohnmaier said,\u00a0\u201cWe are not at war with Russia.\u201d
\n\u201cThe AfD\u2019s position is to remain in dialogue with all global, relevant actors,\u201d he added, criticizing the government for what he called a \u201chyper-moralizing\u201d foreign policy.<\/p>\n
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AfD calls for \u2018Germany first\u2019 policy<\/p>\n
Roettgen claimed that Moscow is waging a \u201chybrid war\u201d against Germany and other European states, accusing his opponent of spreading Russian\u00a0propaganda. In a speech last week, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Russia a threat to national security.
\nGermany recently announced plans to increase financial aid to Kiev by \u20ac3 billion ($3.5 billion) next year, and according to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, delivered additional US-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine last month.
\nA Forsa opinion poll in August found that 52% of respondents in Germany believed Ukraine should cede some territory to Russia to end the conflict. Zelensky, however, has ruled out any territorial concessions.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said last month that NATO members, including Germany, were already de facto \u201cat war with Russia\u201d because Ukraine is actively using Western-supplied weapons. He has stated that Russia will not attack NATO states unless attacked first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AfD parliamentary chief Markus Frohnmaier has urged dialogue to resolve the Ukraine conflict A senior lawmaker from Germany\u2019s largest opposition party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has rejected the government\u2019s claim…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t