The AfD and the French Rassemblement National are very similar in their positions. And yet the most prominent face of the French party keeps its distance from its German colleagues – for a specific reason.
They want it, they don’t want it, they want it, they don’t want it – the AfD currently seems undecided when it comes to calling for a “Dexit”. AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla explained this week on Markus Lanz’s talk show that the possibility of a German exit from the EU must exist as a “last resort”, while at the beginning of February he said on Deutschlandfunk that it was too late for such a thing .
Will the AfD become a problem?
Despite these warnings and the unclear EU line, the party is currently in second place in polls for the European elections with 23 percent, only the CDU/CSU are ahead of them with 28 percent. But not just in Germany: Right-wing populists and right-wing extremists are gaining strength all over Europe. In the European elections, the two right-wing factions in the EU Parliament, “European Conservatives and Reformers” (ECR) and “Identity and Democracy” (ID), could gain a few seats, forecasts say.
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But especially at this poll level, it seems as if the AfD could become a problem for other European right-wing populists. Marine Le Pen from the French Rassemblement National (RN) in particular seems to think that some of the AfD’s positions are too radical – including on the issue of “Dexit”.
Le Pen publicly distanced himself from the AfD
The French right-wing populist also called for her country to leave the EU for a long time. But after losing the 2017 French presidential election to the pro-European Emmanuel Macron, she dropped her demands and adopted a more moderate tone. Le Pen is now again aiming to succeed Macron in the 2027 presidential elections and so EU exit demands, as the AfD partially formulates them, do not fit into their narratives. This is a possible reason why the AfD is not committed to calling for a “Dexit”. In addition to its European parliamentary group partners, it could also scare off more moderate voters.
Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) and the AfD both sit in the EU Parliament in the ID group, a coalition of right-wing populist, nationalist and right-wing extremist parties from Europe. In addition to the AfD and RN, the Italian party Lega led by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and the Austrian FPÖ around Herbert Kickl also belong to the group.
In terms of content, the AfD and RN mostly agree
With these considerations in mind, Le Pen also stated at the end of January that it would be necessary to examine “whether this would have any consequences” for the joint group in the EU Parliament. “We’re going to have to talk about these very big disagreements.” You can read more about Le Pen’s reaction here. AfD European politician Maximilian Krah explained afterwards that “the irritations with the AfD in France” would be eliminated and everything would “dissolve happily”.
In terms of content, the positions of the AfD and RN are otherwise quite consistent: both parties speak out against stricter rules for climate and environmental protection, against arms deliveries to Ukraine and against refugees. For example, in the immigration law that recently came into force in France, the RN tried to introduce regulations for more difficult conditions for social benefits for refugees as well as criteria that make family reunification more difficult. Entirely in the spirit of the AfD.
