Germany’s AfD won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt, three seats short of an outright majority, but key European far-right peers keep their distance. France’s National Rally broke ties in 2024; Italy’s Brothers of Italy and Britain’s Reform UK cite differences over Russia and Ukraine.
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has sought to move toward the political mainstream and said before the Saxony-Anhalt vote that renewed cooperation with the AfD was not planned. It broke ties in May 2024 after an AfD figure downplayed the Nazi SS’s criminal role in World War II and a secret plan to expel people of foreign origin en masse emerged. The AfD rejects right-wing-extremism accusations; its co-leaders called Germany’s domestic intelligence agency’s “extremist” classification an attempt to distort democratic competition.
Italy’s Brothers of Italy supports NATO and Ukraine, while the AfD opposes sending weapons to Ukraine and wants sanctions on Russia lifted; Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the differences “irreconcilable.” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the AfD’s “pro-Putin stuff” was hard to understand and its ties to dictators were difficult. Geert Wilders, Viktor Orbán and Santiago Abascal congratulated the AfD’s result.
