Anyone who has seen a blue trolley in the district of kitzingen or schweinfurt has probably run into christian klingen. The direct candidate of the alternative fur deutschland (afd) distributed flyers from his mobile campaign vehicle and addressed voters. The 52-year-old wants to join the bundestag on behalf of the afd. His most important topics are democracy, euro rescue policy, immigration and internal security.
From klingen’s point of view, there is a certain political muddle in germany. The citizens were made to think they could change nothing and have no say anywhere. "That’s why we need more direct democracy at all political levels." how this could look? "By introducing referendums based on the swiss model," says klingen. If the people had been able to vote on the introduction of the euro, for example, klingen assumes that the euro would probably not have existed in the first place.
Klingen sees black for the euro
The euro is a complete failure from his point of view. "What is this truth that we have had to save for eight years??"The market resident from einersheim criticizes. He sees no chance of saving the euro. In his view, the only way out of the crisis was the reintroduction of national truths.
Another focus for him is immigration – "a burning issue for the afd, where unfortunately a lot is going wrong in germany."According to klingen, a clear distinction must be made between the right to asylum and the right to immigration. "Anyone who is politically persecuted enjoys asylum under the german constitution, which should of course also be possible on a temporary basis."But that does not entitle them to permanent immigration.
Help for self-help
"We can’t resettle all of africa, even if the chancellor says it can be done without an upper limit. This will eventually blow up our social system," predicts the afd politician. Instead, he sees a solution to the refugee crisis in taking action on the ground in the respective countries.
Christian klingen in an interview
Because women, elderly people and children, who needed help the most, were left to sit in their homes. Young people came to germany who were urgently needed in their countries of origin. Klingen: "you mustn’t give them the fish, but the fishing rod. Help for self-help."
As a trained police officer, the issue of internal security is also close to his heart. Now that germany has increasingly become the focus of islamic terror, klingen sees a need for action above all in increasing the number of police officers. That is why he is calling for more personnel, modernized equipment and better networking in order to achieve faster search successes.
About the person
The chairman of the district association of the afd is 52 and was born in wurzburg. He graduated from the rontgengymnasium high school and then trained as a police officer with the bavarian riot police in 1985.
After working for a number of years at various locations in bavaria, he graduated from hof university with a degree in administration. He then worked in the human resources department of the university of wurzburg. For around 23 years, he has been employed in the staff department for occupational safety, animal welfare and environmental protection. He has lived in markt einersheim since 2000.
Klingen has been interested in politics since his school days. When the afd was founded in 2013, he joined the party shortly afterwards. In the district association of lower franconia he was initially an accountant.
When the kitzingen schweinfurt district association was founded, he became chairman shortly thereafter. Since 2016, he has been chairman of the lower franconia district association and a member of the program commission. Wife andrea klingen is also a member of the AFD and general secretary of the district association.