Economic researchers on the AfD program: Dexit would threaten 2.2 million jobs

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AfD slogan “First our country”: If we leave the EU, around ten percent of economic output would be at risk

Photo: Sascha Fromm / Funke Photo Services / IMAGO

The AfD began more than ten years ago as a Euro-critical business party. The German Economic Institute (IW), which is close to employers, is now warning urgently about the consequences of the economic policy of the largely right-wing extremist party.

»It is important to provide the party with content and make the consequences clear to voters. The AfD – contrary to what it likes to pretend – is not a party for the little people. Top earners in particular would benefit from their tax plans,” said Knut Bergmann, head of the Berlin office of the IW, to the “Rheinische Post”.

Bergmann points to the negative consequences that Germany's exit from the EU, as demanded by the AfD, would have: "If Germany were to leave the EU and the Eurozone, it could lose around ten percent of its economic output. This meant a loss of prosperity of 400 to 500 billion euros annually, as a study on the actual consequences of Brexit shows. Germany as an export country would be hit hard - and so would its citizens: 2.2 million jobs would be threatened. According to an IW survey, it is already difficult to attract foreign skilled workers in AfD strongholds, said Bergmann.

However, the IW researcher doesn't think much of a ban process: "The hurdles are rightly very high, and it took years. Failure could mutate into a clean bill of health, and even if successful, the problem that there is also a right-wing radical fringe of the electorate of around ten percent in Germany would not be solved politically. Instead, it must be made clear to the citizens what the AfD is trying to destroy Threatening: political culture, togetherness, prosperity, says Bergmann.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, among others, recently called on companies to take a clear stance against the AfD. The SPD politician warned that "the climate of division and resentment that the AfD is fomenting is deterring highly qualified workers and skilled workers from abroad." After a long period of silence, there is now a growing awareness in business that the party is harmful to the economy. However, some entrepreneurs such as billionaire Theo Müller continue to maintain contacts with AfD politicians.

According to IW researcher Bergmann, most entrepreneurs who rely on exports now understand that the AfD would ruin their business. »The economy has to take a stand – and it does. “Basic action is probably more sustainable than attitude campaigns, some of which are cheap,” he told the “Rheinische Post”.

In Germany, the party recently achieved more than 20 percent in nationwide surveys; In addition to the Thuringia regional association led by Björn Höcke, the Saxony-Anhalt regional association is now also classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

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