The victory of the AfD party in German regional elections has triggered varied reactions among the French far‑right: the National Rally (RN) has remained notably silent, while the Reconquête! party has openly welcomed the result. In the Saxony-Anhalt elections, the AfD secured 43.8% of the vote, finishing ahead of the CDU party of Friedrich Merz, which received 17.2%.
Political strategy and divisions
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, who are respectively vying to become the next president and prime minister of France, did not comment on the AfD’s success following the election. This silence is unsurprising given Marine Le Pen‘s years‑long campaign to normalize the image of the National Rally—formerly the National Front—and distance the party from the overt racism and antisemitism promoted by her father, party founder Jean‑Marie Le Pen. According to an IPSOS/BVA poll published in the newspaper Le Parisien, the RN leads the polls with 34–36% support ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella stated before the election that restoring an alliance between the RN and the AfD was “not planned.” However, he acknowledged that the electoral pressure from the AfD in Germany helped shift the political landscape for the government led by CDU leader Friedrich Merz, specifically by contributing to the reinstatement of border controls.
The Reconquête! party, which holds positions further to the right than the RN and belongs to the same group in the European Parliament as the AfD—Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN)—openly welcomed the results. MEP Sarah Knaisfo called them “historic,” and party leader Éric Zemmour described them as an “hour of truth.” Reconquête! shares several views with the AfD, including the concept of “remigration,” which the RN does not openly support, instead advocating for the systematic expulsion of illegal migrants and foreign criminals.
RN MEP Pierre‑Romain Thionnet said the AfD result should not come as a surprise, as the party succeeded on issues that traditional political forces failed to address—mass migration, the loss of national identity, and social and industrial decline. He added that the result shows “the collapse of traditional parties in favor of political forces that truly represent the aspirations of Europeans.”
At the same time, Pierre‑Romain Thionnet confirmed that the RN decision not to ally with the AfD in the European Parliament remains unchanged due to positions held by certain AfD representatives regarding historical memory that are unacceptable to the French party, as well as significant differences in foreign policy.
Previously, the RN and the AfD were part of the Identity and Democracy parliamentary group alongside the Italian League and the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). However, before the 2024 European Parliament elections, a conflict erupted between the parties following a series of scandals involving AfD leaders. Specifically, the party’s lead candidate Maximilian Krah stated in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that membership in the Nazi SS did not automatically make a person a criminal. In May 2024, the Identity and Democracy group voted to expel the AfD. After the elections, the AfD helped form a new right‑wing group, Europe of Sovereign Nations, officially established in July 2024.
Sciences Po Paris researcher and professor of politics Gilles Ivaldi notes that the political strategy of Reconquête! is more similar to that of the AfD than the RN. He said the AfD speaks more radically and openly positions itself as a far‑right force, whereas the RN attempts to soften its platform and normalize its image to win the presidential election.
However, Gilles Ivaldi emphasized that the RN and Reconquête! should not be viewed as entirely different political forces, as they share many views on migration, crime, Ukraine, and France’s relations with Russia. In the 2022 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen received 23.15% of the vote in the first round, while Éric Zemmour received 7.07%.
Source: Euronews
