Ex-General: Merkel has shaken the foundations of Germany

Wundrak believes that most of the mainstream politicians, including the Federal Chancellor, are anti-German. Only the AfD attaches importance to preserving German sovereignty, he says, while Merkel’s policy is aimed at “denationalising” Germany.

A state is made up three elements which include the people, a territory and a legal system, Wundrak said in an interview with Junge Freiheit.

“Mrs. Merkel has shaken all three. With their open borders, the state territory, with the multicultural mass immigration the people and their policy of breaking the law and transferring our sovereignty blurred the state order,” warned the former top soldier. “I had hoped that the dissolution of borders was not a political calculation,” he said.

This was also the reason for him to join the AfD. Wundrak is running for the party in the mayoral election in Hannover. After the resignation of the previous incumbent Stefan Schostok (SPD), a new Lord Mayor will be elected.

Prior to joining the AfD, the Air Force General had been a member of the CDU for some six years. However, he resigned from this position in 2014 because, according to him, the government led by Angela Merkel did nothing against “the then still covert mass immigration”.

“In 2017 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she did not recognize what she should have done differently. In other words, there was no insight into her moves retrospectively. When I heard that, I made the decision to join the AfD,” despite the risks, he told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

“Anyone who confesses to being AfD is bullied and marginalized. It also gets into the focus of Antifa,” he said.

Instead of combating illegal immigration with temporary border controls, the government has made every effort to ensure that the problem remains buried. “It was clear to me, I have to actively fight against this policy, because it is intentionally directed against the interests of our state and people. And the only party that opposes that is the AfD.”

The longtime professional soldier also expressed sharp criticism against former Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU). Her allegation that there is a problem in the army regarding “right-wing extremism” has hit many soldiers.

To be publicly insulted by the commander-in-chief was “difficult to endure,” complained Wundrak. The Bundeswehr has “very clearly” no attitude problem in terms of right-wing extremism. Rather, the media tries to inflate every single case into a scandal.

Wundrak emphasized that his criticism, however, does not refer only to Von der Leyen. For example, all defense ministers since Rudolf Scharping (SPD) failed to “ensure that the armed forces get what they need”.

And this is not a question of money, the ex-General clarified. “Money is there, that’s a question of prioritization: But politics rather distributes election gifts, puffs up the social sector or puts it into refugee policy. So it’s no wonder that the Bundeswehr is in such a state today.”

Wundrak is running for the AfD in Hanover as mayor. The 64-year-old, who has been a member of the AfD since the summer of 2017, was formally nominated by the AfD assembly on 6 August. The mayor election is scheduled for October 27. The party approved Wundrak as a candidate with a massive 98 percent of the vote.

His political statements include positions that the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) referred to as “AfD classic” comments about the “harassment of women” and “gangs of young men”.

He sees the EU structures as an “undemocratic bunch” and “pseudo-parliament”, because national states are pushed aside. However, he was “not fundamentally against the EU” and is pro-NATO.

SZ even suggested that Wundrak displayed “right-wing extremist” sympathies in a speech in front of the Hannover-AfD by citing the Bundestag President and extremists in the same sentence: “There are currently many voices from the so-called Reich citizens to Wolfgang Schäuble, who question the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany and thus of the German people.”

The Süddeutsche Zeitung has meanwhile also defended the outrageous appearance of the Green Councilor and district chairman Helga Stieglmeier. She blared “Nazis out” at least 200 times with her megaphone directly in front of a camera crew at an AfD event with Alexander Gauland in Eichenried.

Wundrak sees his political priorities in the “restoration of internal security, the end of the neglect of public space, the creation of affordable housing, especially for families with children and a serious budgetary policy,” the ex-soldier told the Berlin weekly Junge Freiheit.

After 44 years in the Bundeswehr, Wundrak retired in the autumn of 2018. The Federal Cross of Merit was given to him and he has served in various executive positions, including overseas missions in Afghanistan and Bosnia. From 2013 to 2018 he commanded the center air operations in Kalkar.

In the ranks of the AfD there are a number of politicians who served many years in the Bundeswehr. They include deputy party chairman Georg Pazderski as well as the colonel working as the defense policy spokesman in the Bundestag, Rüdiger Lucassen, and the deputy Gerold Otten.

The Rhineland-Palatinate state chairman Uwe Junge is a retired lieutenant colonel, while the deputy Jan Nolte still Oberbootsmann in the reserve. According to information from the AfD, the picture at the top is also reflected in its structure. Of the 35 000 party members, there are about 2 100 professional soldiers.

The CDU politician Friedrich Merz recently said in an interview in the German Bild newspaper that his party runs the risk of losing the backing of the police and the military. According to Wundrak this is a real risk.

“This is definitely a problem for the Union. The AfD is the only party that fully supports the Bundeswehr. The support of the AfD is likely to be even greater in police circles than among the soldiers.”

He said the reason for this was that his “comrades in the police experience the aberrations of German politics on the street every day. They are at the front”.

Today’s AfD program is broadly in line with the 2003 CDU program, he explained. “I have even juxtaposed the two programs. If you listen to the speeches of the AfD in the Bundestag, then I have to say: That is pure reason.”