PNL MEP Virgil Popescu responded to the co-president of the far-right German party Alternative for Germany, Alice Weidel, after she accused Romanian immigrants of “robbing” the German social system. The liberal states that 519,200 Romanians work legally and pay contributions in Germany, and 4,668 of them are doctors.
Virgil Popescu accused Alice Weidel of using the situation in Magdeburg to generalize at the level of the entire Romanian community, without mentioning how much the number of Romanian citizens living and working in the city has increased in the last ten years.
“Ms. Weidel, you have 519,200 answers for all the lies about Romanians. You chose Magdeburg as an example to build your manipulation and you said about the social expenses for Romanians that they increased 20 times and reached three million euros per year. But you forgot one detail, the one that matters: how many Romanians live in Magdeburg today compared to ten years ago. So I come with other figures, verified: 519,200 Romanians work on contract in Germany every month. They are one of the largest communities of foreign employees in the country. Romania is the second country of origin for foreign doctors, and the training of most of them was paid for by the Romanian taxpayer,” wrote the PNL member of parliament. on Facebook.
The figures cited by Virgil Popescu
The MEP also presented a series of data on unemployment among Romanian citizens, beneficiaries of basic social assistance and fraud detected by the German authorities.
According to the figures cited by him, the unemployment rate among Romanians is 7%, and 8.9% of Romanian citizens benefit from basic social assistance, a proportion close to the German average of 8.1%.
“Unemployment among Romanians: 7%. Romanians who receive basic aid: 8.9%, practically the same as the German average of 8.1%. Organized social aid fraud in 2024: 421 cases in all of Germany, for all nationalities combined. From this you fabricated a “robbery” put in the hands of hundreds of thousands of people. They are not my numbers. They belong to the German state,” said Virgil Popescu.
The liberal said the data came from the Federal Labor Agency, the Institute for Employment Research, the German Medical College and a response from the federal government.
The PNL MEP also criticized Alice Weidel for living with her family in Switzerland, although the party she leads disputes the effects of free movement and immigration.
“And one more thing, Mrs. Weidel. You are talking about people who live in one country and benefit from another. You are a candidate to lead Germany, but you raised your family in Switzerland, taking advantage of exactly that free movement that you blame for everything. The difference between you and the Romanian who works ten-hour shifts in a German slaughterhouse is simple: he is not ashamed to say where he lives,” Popescu wrote.
He linked the AfD leader’s statements to the party’s positions on Russia and the Deveselu anti-missile shield.
“The same party that accuses us of looting demands that the West take into account Russia’s “security interests” and attacks the Deveselu shield, that is, the exact system that defends Romania. You are not the friend of the Romanians either in Germany or here. Frankly, you are not the friend of Germany either, which has had its share of incidents with Russian drones,” the European parliamentarian added.
Criticism of the sovereignists in Romania
Virgil Popescu also criticized the sovereignist politicians in Romania, who he says previously welcomed the electoral results of the AfD, but who did not react after the statements made by Alice Weidel to the Romanians in Germany.
“And to those in Romania who applauded the AfD’s victories: Mrs. Weidel is your ideological ally. Now, the sovereignist leaders are silent. A sovereignist who is silent when the diaspora is insulted, so as not to upset his allies in Berlin, does not defend Romania. He defends the AfD. And the AfD just said that your Romanians are “robbing” Germany,” said the PNL MEP.
Alice Weidel published a message on October 28 in which she invoked a documentary produced by the regional public television MDR. The material presented the situation of some families from Romania who benefit from social aid in Germany and send part of the money to the country.
The co-president of the AfD claimed that, in Magdeburg alone, the social expenses associated with Romanian citizens would have increased 20 times in about a decade and would have reached three million euros annually.
“Child allowances, basic social aid, medical assistance: more and more migrants from Romania are robbing our social system. In Magdeburg alone, expenses have increased 20 times, reaching three million euros per year. Only with the AfD will there be a change of direction in migration policy,” wrote Alice Weidel on the X platform.
