Dr. Kristin Brinker

Spitzenkandidatin (AfD)

Dima Vachedin speaks with Kristin Brinker (AfD), a candidate for Mayor of Berlin.

GENAU and WIR.DE are presenting an interview series with leading candidates from parties contesting the Berlin election. We contacted all parties with a chance of entering the Berlin House of Representatives. GENAU editor-in-chief Dima Vachedin spoke with those who responded. This is the fourth interview in the series. The original interview was published in Russian; this is the translation.
More interviews can be found here.

Dima Vachedin:
Which prejudice against the AfD outrages you the most?

Kristin Brinker:
That we're supposedly racist and that we're right-wing extremists. Complete nonsense. Absolute rubbish. It really annoys me. I've been a member since 2013, I know the party, I know our people, and I find such accusations completely absurd. We have members with a migration background, we're completely open. All we want is for the people who come here to follow our rules. But apparently that's enough for people to call us racists – which of course is nonsense.

Dima Vachedin:
The AfD already has a fairly large caucus in the House of Representatives, and it's likely to grow even larger. How does it work, doing parliamentary work when none of the other parties will work with you?

Kristin Brinker:
Well, the basic situation is that as an opposition party you can't get your own motions passed. But that applies to all opposition parties. For us it's even worse – the other parties won't let us into the bodies we're actually entitled to. For example, the presidium of the House of Representatives, the chairing of committees, and so on. But, excuse me, that simply means disregarding the will of the Berliners who voted for us. That's simply undemocratic. We're sending the same people into these bodies who worked there perfectly normally in the last legislative term, but this time all the other parties have decided not to allow it because of the "firewall." That has nothing to do with democracy anymore.

Dima Vachedin:
Can a heterogeneous city like Berlin actually become homogeneous again, and do you even want that?

Kristin Brinker:
Big cities are always heterogeneous. Why would you want to change that? You just have to make sure the same basic rules apply to everyone. That's the crucial thing. If everyone sticks to these rules, it works. You have to draw red lines when it comes to crime, you have to draw red lines when it comes to cleanliness in the city – then it works.

Dima Vachedin:
But is Berlin, for you, a melting pot of different cultures?

Kristin Brinker:
Yes, a melting pot, of course. People from many countries and cultures – everything that happens in the world becomes visible on our streets right away. You just have to find a way to keep the right temperature so the pot doesn't boil over.

Dima Vachedin:
How do you personally see the future of the AfD over the next five, over the next ten years?

Kristin Brinker:
Very positive! The problems in this country keep growing, and we're the only ones not being let anywhere near solving them. We're an answer to the frustration of citizens who have seen the other parties make wrong decisions again and again, or make no decisions at all. As long as all the other parties band together like a united front and keep fiddling around with small stuff, nothing will change for the better in our country. So I believe it's time for us to take on government responsibility. Maybe even in Saxony-Anhalt already. And then we'll have to prove that we can not only talk like everyone else, but actually deliver what we promised.

Dima Vachedin:
What is the party's relationship to Russia?

Kristin Brinker:
We think it's important that we talk to Russia, that we have a dialogue, that we communicate with each other and don't regard Russia as an enemy. Russia is part of Europe, and we simply cannot afford a confrontation with that country. No one can afford it – Russia can't afford to get into a conflict with us either. That's why we think the current pressure on Russia is a mistake. Too little diplomacy, the sanctions aren't working, it's time for the negotiating table. We have to talk.

Dima Vachedin:
SPD candidate Steffen Krach has proposed expropriating the Russian House in Berlin. What do you think of that?

Kristin Brinker:
No, that won't solve any problem. Quite the opposite – that's exactly the kind of measure that only makes things worse. Of course you have to keep an eye on things if activities threatening our state were happening there. That's not acceptable. But as far as I know, nothing like that is happening there. Honestly, I don't even really know what goes on there. But I find Mr. Krach's demand completely absurd, and it won't lead to anything good.

Dima Vachedin:
What actually happened in Leipzig, where a drone loaded with explosives was found near a Ukrainian aircraft?

Kristin Brinker:
I only know what's been reported in the media. For an ordinary citizen it's impossible to tell what's true, what's a lie, and what's fake. I don't want to speculate on such a sensitive topic. Of course Russia is immediately suspected – but this escalation, these accusations, don't help bring peace to Europe at all. No – let's sit down at a table and sort this out, that's my proposal.

Dima Vachedin:
Many people in our community have the impression that the AfD isn't too fond of immigrants. And they ask: then who's going to work?

Kristin Brinker:
What we criticize is that in recent years there's been a blurring between normal immigration – which we consider a genuinely good thing – and asylum law. That doesn't work. That means the people who really are skilled workers, the ones we'd say are an asset to us, simply don't come to Germany at all, because Germany doesn't offer the conditions they need. On the contrary, skilled workers are leaving Germany for other countries. They say taxes here are too high, energy is too expensive, there's too much bureaucracy, digitalization is a mess. They want to send their children to good schools, but we have problems with our schools. They want to find a good apartment, and we have problems with that too.
And this necessary immigration somehow keeps getting mixed up with the asylum issue. The people who come to us aren't to blame for that – the blame lies with the politicians who allowed this to happen, including at the European level. Why do we need European rules that don't work? In fact, no migrant should ever have been able to reach us via the "green border" at all – there is a European external border, and that's where it should have stopped. But that's not how it works. So this whole body of EU-level legislation is simply wrong and has led to this mess. We want the people who simply have no right to be here to leave our country. Those are the people who went through asylum proceedings and where our legislature determined that they don't get asylum, for whatever reason. They then have to leave the country. That's a fact, and it's the law. That's who we're talking about. Not the people who work here, who have integrated, who pay taxes here, who live their lives here, and who support our country.

Dima Vachedin:
Do you consider the current rules on acquiring citizenship after five years in the country fair?

Kristin Brinker:
There was a real explosion in citizenship grants in Berlin. We're concerned about that, and we believe there was room for abuse. We've heard about language certificates that could be bought. We also don't think it's right that the whole path to citizenship now happens without a personal interview. We'd like to take a closer look at all the cases handled in recent years. I think citizenship is the most valuable thing we have to give. It's not something you can just hand out carelessly. That's why we'd raise the waiting period again, and above all make sure that people actually speak German and have genuinely gone through integration – so that they've truly earned that passport.

Dima Vachedin:
I got my German citizenship two weeks ago. Am I German, in your eyes?

Kristin Brinker:
Yes, of course.

Dima Vachedin:
Do you personally believe in the "population replacement" theory?

Kristin Brinker:
The "population replacement" theory? Well, there are certainly people who are pushing for that and who even say so openly. I actually just read about a case like that over the weekend – some association and its chairman, a German, who's aiming for population replacement and the complete collapse of Germany. I'd have to look that up again more carefully.

Dima Vachedin:
Are these people from the left-wing camp?

Kristin Brinker:
Yes. You know what matters to me? That our culture is seen as something of value. I've traveled a lot around the world and gotten to know many different cultures. And if our own culture disappears, then who would even want to come here? What would we have to offer them? That's why we need to protect our culture. We need to understand who we are, where we come from. Yesterday I was talking with a Turkish man who was born in Berlin and has German citizenship. He says that in Berlin he's the Turk, and in Turkey he's the German. You see how complicated this topic is? These people aren't without a homeland – they consider Berlin their home – but still, the question remains: where am I really from? Everyone has to ask themselves that question; you can't answer it in a minute.

Dima Vachedin:
A few more questions about city politics. Does Berlin have a garbage problem?

Kristin Brinker:
Yes, a serious one. Massive, really. I've lived in Berlin for more than 30 years. I came to Berlin as an East German in the early '90s, and the very first thing I did was go look at the shops on Wilmersdorfer Straße in Charlottenburg. No money, just looking. And there's this train underpass at Stuttgarter Platz – the tracks run above and there's a fairly wide tunnel below – and it used to be clean. Today an enormous number of homeless people camp there, and there's filth all around. All right, Stuttgarter Platz was never spotless – back then it was a red-light area too. But it was never as dirty as it is today! And it's not just there – it's spread across the whole city by now. If you take a boat trip along the canals, you'll see the banks are covered in makeshift camps. This is a huge, huge problem. And it's gotten much worse and needs to be solved differently. Today, I get the feeling nobody's really dealing with it. The city, the politicians aren't handling it properly. You'd need other measures too. Raising fines isn't enough. Not nearly enough.

Dima Vachedin:
But these homeless camps are actually a new problem?

Kristin Brinker:
Completely new. This is a new problem that doesn't just have to do with the housing shortage. Sure, that's part of it too, but not only that. What we're seeing is that a lot of homeless people have come to us from Eastern Europe. That's come about through European freedom of movement. Of course, the Eastern European homeless live much, much better here on the street than in their countries of origin, where they're also treated very badly. Still, we can't take in and support all the homeless people from all of Eastern Europe. You can see for yourself where that leads. We can't manage it. So we also need agreements with those countries, with their capitals, to send these people back. Just shrugging your shoulders doesn't help. We're simply not managing it anymore. We can't provide for these people. And they don't want to be provided for here either, because for them, living on the street here is actually good compared to what they're used to. That sounds macabre. It sounds terrible. But that's how it is. And it doesn't work to just chase these people away with police action. Chasing them away doesn't help. Where would you chase them to? That's the kind of thing that happens in their own countries. But where are we supposed to chase them to? In the end we can only round them up and put them on buses or trains, and transport them back to their home countries. But for that there has to be an agreement with the countries of origin. That's actually what I understand diplomacy to be – solving something like this sensibly between countries. Not just everyone shrugging and saying, well, that's how it is. No. Then I also have to adjust the legal framework. If I say the laws don't allow it, then I have to change the law. That's just how it is.

Dima Vachedin:
But would you strengthen the police overall?

Kristin Brinker:
Yes, absolutely. Of course. We're seeing that the police here in Berlin are under very heavy attack. If you talk to police officers, you notice the personal strain they're under. I think it's terrible when someone is insulted, spat on, kicked every single day. That does something to a person. A police officer is only human too. That can't go on. Police need more support – moral support, but of course also in terms of equipment. They need to be properly equipped. The police stations too, definitely. That's something we want to strengthen.

Dima Vachedin:
One more question about Tempelhofer Feld. You originally come from an architecture background, I believe – what do you think, should it be developed?
Kristin Brinker: As an architect, I would of course build along the edges. But we've also said clearly: once we've asked the people, and the people voted against development, we have to accept that. So if there are now plans to develop it, please ask the residents again first. That means holding another referendum. And if that gives permission, then you can build.

Dima Vachedin:
But the residents also voted in favor of socializing the housing companies.

Kristin Brinker:
Those are two different things. The Tempelhofer Feld referendum resulted in a law. The referendum on socialization, by contrast, was just an appeal, and it stayed at the appeal stage. Incidentally, the Left themselves once sold off a huge amount of real estate cheaply to private big investors – and now they want to buy it all back for a lot of money, from those very same investors. No, we don't support that. But we do want more direct democracy and more referendums.