AfD co-leader Alice Weidel presented a plan in Strasbourg to turn the EU into a loose federation of sovereign nations, and said Germans should vote on leaving if the changes aren’t made. The strategy paper, “Sovereign Nations, a Common Europe,” would end direct elections to the European Parliament and have national parliaments appoint MEPs instead. It would take away the European Commission’s sole right to propose laws, leaving it an administrative role, make the European Council of national leaders the main decision-making body, and replace the European Court of Justice with an arbitration tribunal. “The EU is not a group of sovereign states any more,” Weidel said, adding that “national parliaments and governments need to take over the decision-making process.” The paper also calls for deep cuts to the EU budget, a “fundamental overhaul” of the euro, and reversing net-zero targets and the 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars. If an AfD-led government cannot win “substantial changes,” the paper says “the German people should then decide for themselves which path Germany should take,” meaning a possible Dexit referendum. This is a change in tactics from the AfD’s earlier open support for leaving the EU, with an eye on Germany’s 2029 election. Mainstream EU figures rejected the plan as unworkable.