AfD Member Urges Berlin to Respect Own Democracy Before Assisting Belarusian Opposition

ST.PETERSBURG (Sputnik) - A member of the German right-wing party AfD criticised the federal government on Sunday for offering financial assistance to the Belarusian opposition, despite failing to live up to its own democratic values.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Saturday promised $25 million in funding to Belarusian opposition media and scholarships for student protesters, expelled for taking part in post-election riots.

"Before you tell others how to live you must learn to respect your own democratic norms. Meanwhile, our government is spending 1 billion euros to destroy the parliamentary opposition in Germany under the guise of a fight against the far-right," Albert Breininger said.

Breininger, who sits on the AfD’s committee for ethnic minorities, said the package of 89 measures was aimed specifically at the national parliament’s biggest opposition party. The bills were adopted by the cabinet in November in response to a rise in right-wing violence.