AfD to propose scrapping EU Parliament and shrinking Commission

Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel will present a policy programme at the European Parliament on Wednesday that calls for abolishing the directly elected European Parliament, shrinking the European Commission, and allowing Berlin to opt out of common EU policies.

The AfD does not seek to leave the EU or eurozone outright, according to the document. Instead, the party wants to renegotiate EU treaties and cut the bloc's powers and institutions.

The move follows Marine Le Pen's appearance in Brussels last week, where the French far-right leader vowed to halve Paris's contributions to the EU budget if she becomes president and to reduce the European Commission to a "secretariat" serving member states. Le Pen said she was "not fooled by what the European Commission wants to do" and that the Commission seeks to turn itself into a state, which the far-right leader opposes, vowing that "we will stand in its way."

The AfD's programme arrives on the back of the party's recent victories in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which have given it fresh political momentum heading into a wider European far-right push to reshape EU institutions.