AfD Leader Alice Weidel Warns Germany Could Be Left Funding Ukraine Alone as U.S. Support Recedes

Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has warned that Berlin risks becoming the sole financier of Ukraine’s war effort as Washington reduces its involvement, while criticizing Germany’s foreign aid spending and blaming the Iran war for Donald Trump’s midterm election losses. ⠀ Weidel said Germany had become the world’s largest provider of development assistance, spending €26 billion annually and surpassing the United States. OECD figures confirm that Germany ranked first in 2025, narrowly ahead of Washington. ⠀ She also described Germany as Ukraine’s principal financial supporter, warning that Berlin could be left bearing the cost of a war in which she believes the United States has lost interest. ⠀ Her criticism comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz presses other European Union members to contribute more to Ukraine’s financing. Merz has linked progress on wider EU budget negotiations to a collective commitment to support Kyiv. ⠀ Turning to the U.S. midterm elections, Weidel blamed Republican losses primarily on the rising cost of living and Trump’s war against Iran. She argued that Republicans had campaigned on avoiding new wars but broke that promise by launching military operations against Tehran. ⠀ The decision, she said, had severely damaged the party’s electoral prospects. Weidel previously called the Iran war a major factor in the scale of the Republican defeat. ⠀ On U.S. immigration enforcement, Weidel distanced herself from the methods used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), saying she did not defend its actions and would prefer a different approach in Germany. ⠀ She also rejected gender quotas, arguing that giving preferential representation to one group necessarily discriminates against another. “If you have a quota for women, you discriminate against men,” she said. ⠀ The remarks reflect the AfD’s opposition to continued German military and financial support for Ukraine, a policy Chancellor Merz has defended as essential to European security.