Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is once again pushing a deeply controversial position on Kosovo, calling for Berlin to withdraw its recognition of Kosovo’s independence and opposing the Western Balkans’ path toward full European Union membership.
AfD has consistently rejected Kosovo’s independence. In January 2023, Petr Bystron, then the party’s foreign policy spokesman, described Germany’s recognition of Kosovo as a “mistake.” The party has also demanded that Germany apologize to Serbia for NATO’s 1999 intervention and reverse its recognition of Kosovo.
The party’s position was made even clearer in a parliamentary initiative submitted in June 2023 by AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla. The document referred to Kosovo as a “fake state” and called for greater executive powers for the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities, as well as a separate administrative arrangement for Serbian churches and monasteries in Kosovo.
The Bundestag rejected the initiative in September 2024.
AfD has also called for Germany to pull out of KFOR. In May 2023, AfD lawmaker Markus Frohnmaier declared that the “Kosovo project has failed” and demanded Germany’s withdrawal from the NATO-led peacekeeping mission and an end to German assistance for Kosovo.
The party’s opposition does not stop at Kosovo’s independence. AfD also rejects further EU enlargement into the Western Balkans, arguing instead for a looser relationship with the region based on arrangements similar to those between the EU and Switzerland or Norway.
For Kosovo, the message from AfD is unmistakable: question its independence, weaken the international security presence and limit its European future.
For the wider Western Balkans, such a policy would represent a dramatic departure from the European integration process that has been presented as a means of strengthening peace, stability and democratic institutions across the region.
AfD’s proposals have so far failed to gain the support necessary to change Germany’s policy. But its continued campaign against Kosovo demonstrates how openly the far-right party is challenging Berlin’s established position in the Balkans — and advocating a foreign policy that would move Germany in a fundamentally different direction from its European and NATO allies.
