“No compromise is possible” with the far right, France warns after AfD victory in Germany

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot warned that “no compromise is possible” with the far right after AfD’s sweeping victory in Saxony-Anhalt.

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No compromise is possible

In a message posted after Sunday’s election, Barrot called the result “overwhelming” and urged people to “open their eyes wide” to the rise of a party he described as “neonazi, anti-European and pro-Putin.” He said AfD’s program represented “a betrayal of the European spirit” and accused it of supporting historical revisionism, the internment of foreigners in camps, xenophobia in school programs and control of the media.

Barrot said the victory demonstrated the scale and strength of a wave that has been moving across Europe for two decades. His warning came seven months before France’s presidential election, in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is leading in opinion polls.

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neonazi, anti-European and pro-Putin

The French minister also urged democratic parties to address the social conditions behind the far right’s growth. He cited “proletarianization, injustice, dispossession” and said politicians must confront the despair driving people toward such ideas and parties. “Without a response to this cry of anger from Europe’s peoples to political leaders, the worst is inevitable,” he wrote.

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a betrayal of the European spirit

He ended by saying that those who reject extremism must urgently respond to the anger emerging in France’s democratic debate. AfD received 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt, ahead of the CDU on 17.2%. The SPD won 9.3%, the Greens 8.9%, the Left 8.6% and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance 5.3%. AfD regional leader Ulrich Siegmund remained three seats short of the majority required to form a government alone.

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Without a response to this cry of anger from Europe’s peoples to political leaders, the worst is inevitable