German business group calls far-right politics a threat to prosperity
The influential German engineering industry lobby group VDMA on Thursday sharply criticized right-wing nationalist politics, the latest major business group to warn that rising support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) poses risks for the economy.
"A country as strong in exports as Germany needs open borders, a welcoming culture for foreign skilled workers and a firm anchoring in Europe and the eurozone," VDMA's executive committee and executive board said in a statement.
"The nationalist ideas of the AfD and other extremist parties, especially with regard to their economic policy, would soon ruin Germany as a business location," the statement continued.
The AfD's scepticism about the EU has come in for particularly harsh criticism from business groups, who see the bloc's single market and open borders as a key to German prosperity.
AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel recently argued that the far-right party should pursue a referendum on quitting the EU modelled on the United Kingdom's 2016 Brexit vote if it can't succeed in forcing sweeping reforms on the EU to diminish the power of Brussels.
The VDMA said those like Weidel calling for a so-called "Dexit" - a "Deutschland Exit" from the EU - have not understood that no European country can survive alone in the economic power struggle between the continents.
Hostile anti-immigrant rhetoric from the AfD and other right-wing groups is already making it more difficult for German companies to recruit talented and skilled workers abroad because they don't feel welcome in Germany, the group said.
"We can't afford that in the global race for bright minds," the VDMA's leaders said. "Business and advocates of a democratic, market-based society must therefore take a clear stance against such anti-prosperity ideas."
