AfD Demands US Troops Leave Germany as Iran War Fractures NATO

The Demand

Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, called for the withdrawal of all US military personnel from Germany during a party conference in the eastern state of Saxony on Saturday. According to reporting by the German daily Bild, Chrupalla said: "Let's start putting this into practice — by withdrawing US troops from Germany."

The AfD's formal platform already calls for removing all allied troops and nuclear weapons from German soil. Chrupalla's remarks represent the leadership publicly activating that plank in response to the Iran war. He urged Germany to follow Spain's example — Madrid has barred Washington from using Spanish military bases for operations against Iran.

Germany currently hosts approximately 38,000 US soldiers, according to reporting by Anadolu Agency. American bases are concentrated in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate — including Ramstein Air Base, one of the most strategically significant US installations in Europe — as well as in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

Why Ramstein Matters

Ramstein Air Base is not peripheral to the Iran war — it is central to it. US forces are using the base as a coordination hub for drone and missile strikes against Iranian targets, according to News18 and The Telegraph. That role has drawn direct criticism from German opposition politicians, who have warned that Germany could become a retaliation target as a result.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has publicly accused the United States of carrying out a "massive escalation" in the conflict rather than pursuing a diplomatic off-ramp, according to News18. That statement from the sitting chancellor — a centrist conservative — underscores how broadly the Iran war has strained the transatlantic relationship, well beyond the AfD's far-right fringe.

Chrupalla specifically named Ramstein as a flashpoint, arguing that Germany's hosting of US operations makes the country a participant in a war it has no legal obligation to join.

The NATO Fracture

The AfD's demand lands in the middle of a broader NATO crisis. Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull US security commitments from alliance members he accuses of spending too little on defense. He has set a 5 percent of GDP target — far above NATO's existing 2 percent benchmark — and warned that members falling short should not have a vote on future NATO expenditures, according to sources quoted by The Telegraph.

On Friday, Trump warned that the US may reconsider its security commitments to Europe if NATO allies do not step up support in securing the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has used as a chokepoint in the ongoing conflict. He called NATO members "COWARDS" and declared the alliance a "paper tiger" without American participation.

Reports published Friday indicate that Trump's own administration has been actively considering withdrawing US troops from Germany — not as a concession to AfD demands, but as a pressure tactic against Berlin and Brussels. Sources close to the administration told The Telegraph that "the frustration we've had with the Europeans has been very real."

Chrupalla has previously argued that NATO serves US interests disproportionately and that Germany should pursue an independent foreign policy by 2029. His remarks on Saturday explicitly linked that long-term goal to the immediate question of the Iran war.

What's Actually at Stake

The strategic consequences of a US troop withdrawal from Germany would extend well beyond the Iran war. Ramstein Air Base is not just a staging point for Middle East operations — it is the primary hub for US nuclear weapons storage and command relay in Europe. Removing American forces from Germany would fundamentally alter NATO's deterrence posture against Russia at precisely the moment the alliance is most stretched.

It would also set a precedent. If Germany joined Spain in limiting US military use of its territory in wartime conditions, other NATO members facing domestic political pressure — particularly in Southern and Central Europe — could follow. The alliance has no formal mechanism to compel member states to allow their territory to be used for offensive operations outside NATO's treaty area.

Germany's position is structurally awkward: the Merz government is legally and politically committed to the alliance but is hosting operations it has publicly criticized as escalatory. The AfD's demand, however politically opportunistic, names a contradiction that the mainstream German government has not resolved.

The AfD's Political Calculation

The AfD finished second in Germany's February 2025 federal elections but remains in opposition. Chrupalla's demand is unlikely to become government policy in the near term. However, the party is framing itself as the political option for Germans who want out of what it portrays as entanglement in an American war — a message with potential reach in eastern Germany, where Chrupalla's speech was delivered and where the party consistently polls highest.

The demand also serves a secondary function: it aligns the AfD with Trump's own rhetoric about European free-riding on US defense spending, even while calling for US forces to leave. That rhetorical overlap — anti-NATO from one direction, anti-NATO from another — is a feature, not a contradiction, for a party trying to appeal simultaneously to nationalist and anti-war sentiment.

Whether Trump acts on the withdrawal reports before the AfD gets a chance to is now an open question. The two political actors may be converging on the same outcome from opposite motivations.