Who is celebrating and who is keeping quiet on the European right regarding the AfD’s victory

The AfD’s triumph in Saxony-Anhalt is dividing the right even in Europe. Following the rift within the Italian government, where Fratelli d’Italia had to mediate between Tajani’s “terrible news” and Salvini’s “resounding success”, conservatives across the Old Continent also find themselves divided over how to respond to the rise of the German nationalist party. This uncertainty is particularly evident within the ranks of Patriots for Europe, the European group comprising the Lega and the Rassemblement National – the successor to Identity and Democracy, the very group from which these two parties voted to expel the AfD in May 2024.

Whilst some members of the Patriots, such as the former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, were quick to congratulate the German party and celebrate its result, many others chose instead to remain silent, emphasising their differing affiliations with Brussels. Staying in Hungary, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) led by Zsolt Semjén – a member of the Patriots and historically aligned with Fidesz (to the extent that it has been described on several occasions over the years as a satellite party of the latter) – has not issued any comments.

Among those most enthusiastic about the election in Saxony-Anhalt are certainly the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), and the Belgian Tom Van Grieken of Vlaams Belang (VB). “Congratulations”, reads the post on X by the former, written in capital letters, whilst the latter posted a photo of Alice Weidel and Ulrich Siegmund, writing “Anything is possible” and “The future of Europe is being decided here”.

But the AfD’s closest link within Patrioti is undoubtedly that with Herbert Kickl’s Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the only party – alongside the Estonian Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) – which did not take part in the 2024 vote to expel the Germans from Id. Siegmund dedicated a video on X to the Austrians, which shows him during the celebrations set to the beat of house music. In the footage, the AfD representative thanks his “FPÖ colleagues” for their support, stating that he is working “side by side” with them on a “shared project” involving “the rest of the world”.

Populist right-wing parties on the Iberian Peninsula have also congratulated the AfD: both Santiago Abascal of Vox and André Ventura of Chega have posted messages of support for the German party on X.

Among those who chose not to comment was the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, one of the founders of the Patriots with his party, Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO 2011), who instead congratulated Giorgia Meloni on the government’s recent record. The other representative of the Patriots in Prague, the independent Antonín Staněk, also remained silent. A similar situation was observed in Poland, where Krzysztof Bosak of the National Movement (Rn) made no comment on the election results, while the independent Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik published a neutral analytical post on her X profile. No comment whatsoever was received from the leaders of Voice of Reason (Greece) and Dansk Folkeparti (Denmark).

In France, Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen have not commented on the matter, maintaining the frosty relationship between RN and the AfD that has persisted since the split in 2024. MEP Pierre-Romain Thionnet told Euronews that RN’s decision to no longer be allied with the AfD “remains unchanged”.

In the political space that Le Pen and Bardella have carved out from the AfD, the most extreme section of the French right has now stepped in – represented by Éric Zemmour of Reconquête, an ally of the Germans in the ‘Europe of Sovereign Nations’ group, who described the vote in Saxony-Anhalt as a ‘historic result’ and claimed that ‘the heart of the continent is rising up’.

A similar phenomenon has also occurred in the UK: Nigel Farage, Bardella’s increasingly close ally, has not commented on the AfD, and it was Elon Musk’s new protégé, the neo-fascist activist Tommy Robinson, who seized the moment. Echoing a post by the German journalist Nicholas Potter, who had commented on last Sunday’s results by writing “a dark day for Germany and for Europe”, Robinson wrote on X: “It is a dark day for Germany’s traitors”.

While Elon Musk and his protégés are celebrating the AfD, his old friend Donald Trump does not want to be outdone. Whilst initially – before getting lost in the details of ‘New America’ and the uniforms of the new space forces – Trump had limited himself to posting the election results on Truth without comment, just a few hours ago he decided to revisit the story, launching into a resounding ‘Make Germany Great Again’.