Le Pen’s Party Keeps Its Distance From AfD Victory in Germany

The National Rally, Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, has responded with conspicuous restraint to Alternative for Germany’s sweeping victory in Saxony-Anhalt. While French parties broadly expressed alarm at the rise of the far right in neighboring Germany, RN’s leading figures largely chose silence.

Only Éric Zemmour’s Reconquête, an AfD ally in the European Parliament, openly welcomed the result, and even that reaction lacked enthusiasm. RN broke with AfD in the European Parliament two years ago. Since then, the two parties have belonged to different groups.

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We had a certain number of disagreements that led us to distance ourselves from AfD.

“We had a certain number of disagreements that led us to distance ourselves from AfD,” RN president Jordan Bardella said at a political forum in Cernobbio, Italy, last Saturday. He rejected the idea that an AfD victory would bring the parties back together. “It is not planned,” Bardella said, as he works to preserve a moderate profile.

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It is not planned.

Bardella nevertheless defended one aspect of AfD’s influence, saying its “electoral pressure” had helped move Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government because Germany restored border controls several months ago. Philippe Tanguy, one of the few RN politicians to comment after the Saxony-Anhalt result, said the party must acknowledge “a popular vote expressing exasperation with establishment parties that fail to manage immigration, the economy and energy prices.”

The party is wary of celebrating the advance of AfD, where the article says extremely radical, even neo-Nazi, positions coexist. Under Le Pen, RN has spent years rejecting those ideas and adopting a more respectable public image. That caution was undermined last week when Bardella posed with British far-right leader Nigel Farage at a Reform UK event in Birmingham. They displayed a large copy of a nonbinding migration memorandum, including a promise that France would readmit illegal immigrants intercepted by British coastguards in the English Channel and send them to their countries of origin. The proposal drew fierce criticism from all parties. Le Pen has remained silent, while Bardella’s gesture has been viewed as a serious error of inexperience or naivety for someone seeking to become prime minister.

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A popular vote expressing exasperation with establishment parties that fail to manage immigration, the economy and energy prices.