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Politico.eu (13 January 2019)

The far-right Alternative for Germany will push for the country to leave the EU if changes to the way the bloc operates, including abolishing the European Parliament, are not enacted within a “suitable” time period.

AfD party members voted at their conference in the eastern German town of Riesa Sunday on a campaign manifesto and candidate lists for the May European Parliament election.

The campaign program calls for the party to push for a “Dexit” if “our fundamental reform initiatives for the existing EU system are not realized within a suitable amount of time.”

A prior draft of the program had given a deadline for demands to be met within a legislative period, but the language passed did not include a concrete timeframe, according to German media.

The program also calls for getting rid of the European Parliament itself, calling the EU body undemocratic and arguing that the “competence to make laws is exclusively for nation states.”

As an alternative to leaving the EU, the party said it could also push for the “organized dissolution of the European Union and the establishment of a new European economic and interest group.”

In a debate about a possible “Dexit” and whether to put a deadline on meeting demands, one of the party leaders, Alexander Gauland, had argued that if Brexit leads to “certain chaos” in March, it would affect the mood on the Continent.

“It’s not smart to go into an election with maximum demands in a such a situation,” he said.