Where to go with the AfD? Even on the EU right, the Germans are becoming too right-wing

Brussels Parliament
Where to go with the AfD? The Germans are becoming too right-wing even for the right-wing EU factions

The AfD is having trouble with its top EU candidates, and now France’s right-winger Marine Le Pen is also terminating his friendship with them. There are two large right-of-center factions in the EU Parliament – ​​is the AfD still welcome there?

Georgia Meloni has succeeded where the Le Pens failed for decades: seizing power. The post-fascist Italian has been head of government since 2022, a position that the two French right-wingers Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter Marine Le Pen have never achieved. At least not yet. Which could only be a matter of time. Because Marine Le Pen, with Meloni the poster girl of the European right, has succeeded in what the German one wanted AfD doesn’t even seem to have one interest: the de-radicalization of its membership.

AfD man Krah provoked too much once

Maximilian Krah, for example, the AfD’s leading candidate for the European elections, recently stated in an interview with the Roman newspaper “La Republicca” that members of the SS troops during the Nazi era were “not all criminals.” For Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party, the statement was the final straw. The proximity to the AfD is apparently so damaging to its reputation that the RN leader has now ended her collaboration with the Germans. “The AfD went from provocation to provocation,” says Le Pen.

The separation takes place with announcement: Already in February she felt compelled to have a discussion with AfD leader Alice Weidel. It was about the right-wing extremist meeting in Potsdam, in which AfD members also took part. It didn’t help. “Now it is time to make a clear break with this movement, which is clearly under the influence of radical groups,” said the Frenchwoman now.

Even Meloni distances himself from the AfD

The German right is not only too right-wing for the French right: other European parties are also struggling with the AfD. After the revelations by the research group “Correctiv” about the content of the right-wing radical meeting, Giorgia Meloni also distanced herself from the ultra-right Fratelli d’Italia from Weidel and Tino Chrupalla’s party. She spoke of “irreconcilable differences” and was referring primarily to the AfD’s relations with Russia.

It is not yet clear what the divorce will mean for the future European Parliament, but the right-wing factions are likely to gain a wing after the election on June 9th.

The EU MPs are currently divided into seven factions: on the one hand, the “Left” (including MPs from the German party Die Linke), the Social Democrats and the Greens. In addition, the liberal “Renew Europe” and the EPP (Christian Democrats, from whose ranks Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also comes).

Hungary’s Fidesz has no parliamentary home

To the right of this, the national conservatives gather in the “European Conservatives and Reformists” (ECR) group and the right-wing populists in “Identity and Democracy” (ID):

Sources:SWP BerlinDPA, AFP, Reuters, European Parliament, n-tv