Alternative for Germany politician defends plans for Russia trip

A European lawmaker for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has defended his party’s plans for a trip to Russia against fierce criticism from mainstream parties.

Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Hans Neuhoff told the Handelsblatt business newspaper in comments published on Saturday that the accusations that he was too close to the Russian government from two conservative politicians were “unqualified.”

The criticism came from the general secretary of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Martin Huber, and a foreign policy politician from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Roderich Kiesewetter. The sister parties form Germany’s conservative bloc.

“I am travelling to a congress organized by the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the topic of perspectives of relations between EU countries and BRICS countries, and I will also be giving a lecture there,” explained Neuhoff.

Participants from the entire spectrum of BRICS countries and several EU countries are expected at the congress, according to Neuhoff. “Conservative bloc politicians who think we should ignore BRICS have understood nothing about geopolitics. They are leading Germany and Europe into isolation, not into a prosperous future,” Neuhoff said.

The abbreviation BRICS stands for the initial five members of the group of emerging industrial nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The criticism specifically concerns a planned trip by Steffen Kotré and Rainer Rothfuss, both AfD members of the German lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, Saxony’s AfD state leader Jörg Urban and MEP Neuhoff to a political science conference in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The symposium is organized by the Institute of Europe and organizers from the Kremlin party United Russia. The event was held for the first time last year.