The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party says she will tear down wind turbines if she becomes chancellor, Bloomberg reports.
Alice Weidel called them “windmills of shame” at a party congress in Saxony on Saturday after being named party chair and its candidate for the 23 February election.
The AfD has said getting rid of turbines would cut the cost of running the national grid, since intermittent generators such as wind need expensive auxiliary systems to smooth out their contribution.
The election is the first since the country stopped importing Russian gas, and energy policy is set to play a prominent role in the parties’ policy platforms.
In place of wind, the AfD would continue burning coal, gas and oil in power stations, supplemented by lignite (brown coal), and a new nuclear programme.
Back to Russian gas
The party wants to leave the Paris climate agreement, cut energy taxes, and restart gas imports from Russia.
It has argued that the shift towards renewables is driven by ideology, depends on state subsidies, and will lead to poverty, de-industrialisation and import dependency.
If elected, Weidel’s policies would reverse Germany’s renewable energy drive.
In 2024, the German government granted permits for 15GW-worth of onshore wind schemes, adding to an installed capacity of some 62GW generated by 28,611 turbines.
Last year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his government would accelerate turbine construction, building up to five a day by 2030 (see further reading).
‘Completely destructive’
Weidel’s remarks follow statements from president-elect Donald Trump, who said he would halt the construction of wind turbines in the US.
They echo a 2021 interview in which Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally, said she would stop any wind farms that were under construction and launch a large programme to dismantle those already built.
Kerstin Andreae, the head of the German Energy and Water Industry Association, called Weidel’s statement “completely destructive”.
She said: “The term ’wind turbines of shame’ is not only inappropriate, but also distorts basic facts and thus misses the point of the current debate.”
Distance from statement
Weidel later tried to distance herself from her statement.
In an interview with German press agency DPA, she claimed to have been referring to a local matter in the state of Hesse.
However, the AfD asserts in its election platform that it “rejects the further expansion of wind energy” and has called for cuts to renewable subsidies.
At present, the AfD is in second place in the polls with the support of 20-22% of voters. It is behind the conservative CDU/CSU, which has 29-31%, but ahead of the ruling Social Democrats, which is on 14-16% and the Greens (13-15%).
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