Opinion
Europe’s right-wing extremists
The AfD is damaging Le Pen’s image – but right-wing radicals remain right-wing radicals
France’s right-wing party leader Marine Le Pen at an event in January
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Marine Le Pen distances herself from the AfD. This is primarily for domestic political reasons – after all, France’s right-wing frontwoman wants to become president in 2027. As a sympathizer of German Nazis, she will hardly be able to do this.
Marine Le Pen is a hard-working politician and has been in the business for a long time. Everything she is currently doing serves only one goal: in 2027 she wants to move into the Élysée Palace as president. She is the only candidate who – assuming nothing unplanned comes up – has already been chosen and is therefore in the long-term election campaign. It is still considered unlikely that the right-wing extremists will come to power in France. But no longer than impossible. This is her great success.
For decades, Marine Le Pen has been trying to whitewash her “Rassemblement National” (RN) and position it as an electable right-wing nationalist force. A German AfD troublemaker like Maximilian Krah, who trivializes the SS, does not fit into this strategy. He shows too clearly who the true comrades of the RN are. That’s why there is now a break with Germany’s right-wing extremists.
Marine Le Pen’s party was founded by former SS members
The timing also plays a role in the distancing theater. June 6th marks the anniversary of D-Day and a series of major commemorations are imminent: Eighty years ago, France was liberated from Nazi Germany and its collaborators. An unpleasant anniversary for the Le Penists, because it also reminds us of the origins of their party: former members of the Waffen-SS, fascists and nationalists of various stripes once had a compatible partner in Marine Le Pen’s father, the anti-Semite Jean-Marie Le Pen Found a leading figure and founded the Front National.
For the RN, the European Union and the EU Parliament are not priority issues today. It’s all about how the party is perceived within France. That’s why one would like to be closer to the successful Giorgia Meloni and her group of European Conservatives and Reformers (ECR), and not to the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, in which the foul-mouthed AfD also sits.
Right-wing radicals remain right-wing radicals – no matter what they call themselves
Marine Le Pen no longer wants to be called a right-wing extremist. She wants to erase her party’s legacy from memory. She calls her politics “national-conservative”. However, it owes its rise to former leaders of violent right-wing extremist groups. Until recently, she and her party also had business ties to these circles. It’s all over, claims Marine Le Pen. She is now very skilled at rhetorically wriggling her way out of her party’s ideological mud.
The thing is actually quite simple: right-wing radicals remain right-wing radicals. No matter what they call themselves.