Chrupalla on the trash heap of diplomacy - and calls it politics

Tino Chrupalla has long lost any threshold of decency. As soon as Donald Trump presents his 28-point plan, the AfD leadership jumps on it like someone who has been waiting for a signal to finally say: "We were right." Only that the exact opposite is true. This plan does not show that the AfD understood anything at all - it only shows how far Chrupalla is willing to go to sell a complete capitulation of Ukraine as a diplomatic masterpiece. For him everything is so simple: Ukraine is supposed to cede territory. Period. In addition, a restricted access to the Black Sea - as if that were a generous gift and not the creeping economic and security suffocation of a country. Chrupalla talks about it as if it were an administrative reform. In his portrayal, even the most severe geopolitical self-sacrifice sounds like a technical process that can be settled with a signature.

He pretends that this outcome is the logical consequence of Western "mistakes", as if Russia and Putin were not the driving force of this war but Brussels. And although the United States blocked every serious European initiative for years, Chrupalla sells the current plan as a triumph of American reason. As if Washington had ever promoted anything that was truly safe for Kyiv. The United States constantly slowed things down in this question - and now he presents their course as a revelation. Then he brings Orbán into the picture - who calls the EU a "war mafia" - and quotes him as if that were some kind of indisputable insight. For Chrupalla, Orbán is the witness of truth, even though he has done nothing for years but dress up Putin's interests in Europe. But it is enough for Chrupalla that someone shouts "EU to blame!" loud enough. Content does not matter, as long as it fits his worldview.

It becomes even more grotesque when he mentions Trump. Trump claims Ukraine should "better not have started the war." A Russian attack is suddenly reinterpreted as a decision by Ukraine - and Chrupalla calls that "exaggerated." But he does not actually contradict it. Because this distortion is exactly what he needs politically: The victim has to be guilty so that the perpetrator appears as a negotiable partner. Merz is now supposed to "be careful" not to block the plan. According to Chrupalla's logic, the CDU leader would be responsible for a possible prolongation of the war. Not Putin. Not Trump. Not the demands for ceding Ukrainian territory. No - Merz. Chrupalla shifts responsibility so far until it lands where it benefits him. That Ukraine would be geopolitically mutilated by this plan does not interest him. The main thing is that he can point the finger at Berlin.

Europe has "failed", he says, even though the EU was the only one that even tried to find a course that guarantees security without sacrificing a country. While Washington stalled and Berlin hesitated, Brussels negotiated, supported, paid, stabilized. But Chrupalla needs the image of an incompetent Europe to create the appearance that the AfD is the only force that has the courage to recognize "real diplomacy." But what he calls "diplomacy" is nothing more than nodding through a list of demands that Moscow has been preparing for years. The AfD speaks of peace, but means submission. It speaks of diplomacy, but means that Ukraine should comply. This plan is not progress - it is the script of a forced retreat. And that is exactly why Chrupalla celebrates it: He himself has never shown a hint of empathy for the country that loses the most in this war. He adopts Putin's arguments, Trump's cynicism and Orbán's contempt for Europe - and sells it as smart world politics.

The 28 points show above all one thing: Anyone who celebrates them has nothing to do with peace. They are only interested in keeping Ukraine small, stabilizing Russia and weakening Europe. The AfD does that with frightening eagerness. And Chrupalla stands at the forefront - ready to push a country into the final abyss and then claim it is for its own good. It is almost logical that Chrupalla now appears on the cover of a magazine that would not be missed if it disappeared tomorrow. That this very paper sells him as a "peacemaker" surprises no one, because like attracts like, hollow down to the last pixel.