Joana Cotar graduated from the University of Mannheim with a degree in German philology and political science. In 2013, she joined the newly founded AfD (Alternative for Germany) and became a member of the Bundestag after the German federal elections in 2017. Cotar was a member of the AfD’s federal executive and left the party in November 2022. Cotar cited “the close proximity of prominent AfD leaders to the President of the Russian Federation” as the reason for her resignation.
What is the reason for the strength of Russian influence in Germany?
I don’t believe that Russia has a particularly strong influence on Germany. There have been some fatal misjudgements in the past, but they are currently being corrected—sustainably, I hope. And the remaining Putin friends in German politics fortunately don’t have much influence. There is also no particular support for Putin among the population. The vast majority have a very realistic picture. People are dissatisfied with the high energy prices. These coincide with the stoppage of Russian gas supplies but are actually homemade due to one-sided supply contracts, green climate policy, high taxes and levies, and the phase-out of coal and nuclear power.
The German government has changed its position on Ukraine, but how can Germany regain its energy independence?
First of all, it is important that no options are prohibited. Then the market will automatically create a balanced mix at affordable prices. Dependencies and high prices, on the other hand, are always the result of state intervention in the natural order. Personally, I am convinced that nuclear energy—through fission and fusion—is an essential technology for the future. Germany must quickly reverse its ill-considered exit to facilitate good prices, secure supply, and clean production.
Germany suffered from the Soviet occupation and the wall of shame. Today’s Russia reclaims that period and all its symbols. Isn’t this problematic for German politicians?
For me, it is intolerable that the Russian leadership is not coming to terms with the Soviet dictatorship, but rather glorifying it. This explicitly includes territorial claims to power. That policy has become Ukraine’s undoing, is a major threat to all of Russia’s neighbors and, of course, is also dangerous for Germany. I never again want to see Russian troops occupying our country or our neighbors. Every German politician who values freedom and self-determination should see it the same way.
In Spain, Russia Today (RT) sent a radically leftist and anti-Spanish message, yet many Spanish conservatives support Putin. What was the message of Russian propaganda to Germans?
Propaganda organs such as RT have tried to occupy positions in Germany that have the potential to destabilize the state. They have not looked to the Left or Right, nor did they differentiate between real problems or dubious scaremongering. The main thing was to create an impact somehow. One side effect was that justified criticism—of, for example, coronavirus policy, mass migration or climate ideology—lost some of its credibility because it was misused by Russian propaganda. It was therefore right to switch off these channels.
AfD is always mentioned as an example of a Russian collaborating party, but weren’t the SPD and the CDU recently in a similar position?
Unfortunately, there are politicians in all parties who believe they have to cuddle up to Russia. We find them in the ranks of the SED successor party Die Linke, its most recent split-off around Ms. Wagenknecht, and also in the Greens. First and foremost, however, we have the former chancellors Schröder of the SPD and Merkel of the CDU. They both allowed themselves to be instrumentalized by Moscow during their terms in office. Their motto was that anyone who sells cheap gas can have no bad intentions. But that turned out to be a fallacy.
You mentioned former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who sat on the board of Gazprom. As Donald Trump pointed out, Germany surrendered to Russian energy. Did no one see the problem?
The risk was known of course. Too much one-sided dependency is never good, I don’t need to be an energy expert to say that. But the cheap price and the belief in eternal peace in Europe blinded many people to the reality. They didn’t want to see the problem. And some have made a lot of money from this attitude. Perhaps it can even be seen as a kind of hush money.
Did Russian gas buy the will of German leaders?
No one has yet been convicted of corruption. So, whether politicians have really been bought is as yet unproven, but cannot be ruled out. What is certain is that after the war, occupation, and division, many simply wanted to see the good. There was simply no room for risk analysis and hazard prevention. The official line was: “We are surrounded by friends. What could go wrong?” Today we know how wrong this assessment was.
Regarding the AfD, with the recent election of Maximilian Krah as lead candidate for the European Parliament, AfD is betting on a geopolitical alignment with Russia. After what we have seen in Ukraine, is it not contradictory that a sovereigntist and conservative party aligns itself with an openly anti-Western regime?
This course, which was also confirmed in the election of the federal executive, raises the question of how important national sovereignty still is to the AfD and whether it is really a conservative party. I no longer see a majority for either position in the party and therefore left it over a year ago. There is not only a rapprochement with Russia, but also with China and Iran. This is presumably based on personal financial interests, but also a glorification of totalitarian systems of rule. As a liberal politician, I rigorously reject this.
If the German conservative parties, CDU and AfD, have taken a different course, where are the real German conservatives?
They are still there and they are actually in the majority. That applies to the people, but unfortunately not to the parties. Conservatives can be found in the CDU/CSU, the AfD, and the FDP. A few may even be in the SPD. But they don’t set the tone in any of the parties and they are in the minority everywhere. That’s why the conservatives don’t play a role in Germany at the moment. But I’m sure that can and will change. It’s actually quite simple: all we need is for all conservatives to come together in a new grouping. I have been campaigning for this for a year and I hope that the many talks will lead to success.
