German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/15, pp. 1018-1019.
Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen. And, out of the given occasion, here from the upper house: Right honorable Herr Max Otte, candidate for the office of Federal President, the only candidate in no way located left, but a bürgerlichen candidate for the office of Federal President.
(Members of the AfD rise.)
For us, the only electable candidate for the office of Federal President, although he is since 1991 a member of the Christian Democratic Union. Herr Otte, a hearty welcome, much success and before all many votes at the Federal Assembly on February 13!
Ladies and gentlemen, “Dare more democracy”, that was on October 28, 1969, an initially little noticed saying of Willi Brandt. “Dare more democracy”, that belongs to us of the AfD not only as a saying but it is the living DNA of our party. This conviction of ours, “dare more democracy”, stretches like a blue thread through our work in the States. “Dare more democracy” pertains to us, for example, in regards the demands for more direct democracy, keyword “referendum” [Volksentschiede]; in regards our demand for terms limitation of the Federal Chancellor; in regards the demand for the abolition of parliamentary secretaries, keyword “separation of powers” [Gewaltenteilung]. Dare more democracy, ladies and gentlemen, that also belongs to our draft law today [Drucksache 20/198, 410] which foresees at the time after next, that is, from the year 2027, directly electing the Federal President.
According to our conceptions, what in many states is self-evident should become possible. Each shall receive the opportunity to have himself presented as a candidate if he gathers behind himself 0.5 percent of eligible voters, and from the presented candidates will then be elected directly. That would be a democratic leap forward, ladies and gentlemen, supported by 70 percent of the German population. How nice: No more scheming in backrooms, no consensus candidates of the German democratic delegations. The absolute dominance of the parties would be broken, would be passé. An election campaign would occur which could discover: Who stands for what?
Let yourself for once play out our fantasy of what could here take place. We have on the one side, for example, one candidate, an apparatchik, in his lifetime anyhow located on the left, from extreme to presentable [salonfähig] – active for a leftist newspaper, observed by the Constitution Defense, grunt worker, informer for leftist functionaries, never won an election. Who would vote for such a man, ladies and gentlemen?
Let yourself continue with our fantasy. We present an opposition candidate, graduated from a top university in the United States – let us say, Princeton – then professor at universities, at colleges, in the U.S.A., Austria and in Germany – let us say: for example, Boston, Worms, Graz – then not drawn back to the actual official status, but a voluntary withdrawal from public service, successful business man, author, speaker.
Kathrin Vogler (Linke): Which makes clear who are your clientele!
Konstantin Kuhle (FDP): All of no use!
So now we have multiple candidates, one of whom is more promising, one of whom is less promising. It was also thus in regards the election of the Chancellor that a fully unpromising candidate like, for example, Frau Baerbock – she is just not sitting in the Foreign Minister’s chair – then became Foreign Minister, and was invited to that. I now expect from the public broadcasting, I must quite honestly say, that here yet again a slobbering takes place. We have here three candidates: One from the total left, one from the middle-left – the consensus candidate of the German democratic delegations, as I previously said – and a candidate whom we of the AfD support, who is located in the CDU. Dear CDU, here also we expect support from you.
Ladies and gentlemen, to make it possible that any citizen from the people can become Federal President, our draft law is required. “Dare more democracy” – let us begin at the top of the state! Do what Willi Brandt would also do today: Please vote in favor of our draft law.
Many thanks.
[trans: tem]
Stephan Brandner, January 28, 2022, Dare More Democracy https://youtu.be/ZVUzqlvyW60
AfD in English 