Weidel Vows to Close Germany’s Borders, Leave Schengen, Return All Syrians, and Leave Euro as AfD Surges Ahead of State Elections
Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-chair Alice Weidel has laid out an uncompromising program for a future national government, pledging to restore permanent German border controls, withdraw from the Schengen system and eventually leave the euro.
Her remarks come as the party enters a crucial run of state elections with some of its strongest polling numbers to date.
Speaking in ZDF’s summer interview, Weidel argued that Germany’s existing political and economic model had failed working people while weakening national control over migration. She said the AfD was preparing not merely to influence government policy, but to govern.
“We will govern in the first federal states,” Weidel said. “And we will also govern at the federal level.”
🇩🇪 AfD leader Alice Weidel:
“We will close Germany’s borders. If crises like the one in Ceuta continue, we will withdraw from the Schengen Area.”
Follow: @europa pic.twitter.com/ZumVuEbhpO
— Europa.com (@europa) August 23, 2026
Her sharpest criticism was reserved for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, and the globalist political establishment surrounding them. Weidel said she was tired of being “lied to” by politicians who promise one thing and deliver another.
“I no longer want to be lied to by some dimwits sitting up there promising something and doing the exact opposite,” she said. “Either they can’t do it, or it’s intentional.”
The AfD leader also attacked the CDU’s so-called firewall — the refusal by Germany’s established centrist-globalist party to cooperate with the AfD. Weidel called the policy “the most undemocratic thing there is” and predicted it would eventually destroy the CDU’s ability to win national elections.
“I am prepared to work with anyone as long as they are capable and have the interests of our country in mind,” she said. But she added that she would not accept Germans being “ridiculed and lied to” by the CDU and SPD.
Migration, meanwhile, remains at the center of the AfD’s political project. Weidel said the problem begins at Germany’s borders and argued that national authorities must regain direct control over who enters the country.