Ahead of next week’s European Parliament elections, German industry and unions have warned of a negative impact on the country and its economy if the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gains the upper hand in the polls.
“There is a real danger that the enemies of democracy will make further gains,” the head of the Federation of German Industries, Siegfried Russwurm, said in comments published on Saturday by the media group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
The European elections would determine whether Germany wants to continue its successful development in an open Europe or whether it wants to close itself off, Russwurm said.
“This is not a matter of taste. Germany would be in a much worse economic position without the EU. We can prove this with hard facts,” said the market leader.
In addition, the head of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), Yasmin Fahimi, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that racism and marginalization were already deeply rooted in the self-image and daily lives of far too many people.
This made it all the more important to make it clear what the AfD stands for: ‘It wants a Europe of markets and not of workers. It does not want a minimum wage, but more profits. It does not want greater coverage for collective bargaining. , but arbitrary reward,” Fahimi warned.
“A success by the AfD would mean that we would enter a very deep recession, that we would lose billions in gross national product and up to 2.5 million jobs in one fell swoop,” she added.
According to a recent survey conducted for public broadcaster ARD, the AfD could capture around 14% of Germany’s votes in the June 6-9 elections for a new European Union legislature.