AfD backs US intervention in Venezuela to build coalition ties with CDU

Leading foreign policy figures from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) aim to solidify their position in German domestic politics by supporting a US invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolas Maduro.

According to an analysis by German Foreign Policy, the AfD is in agreement on this point with prominent CDU politicians, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz, thereby expanding common ground for a possible future coalition.

The party had previously demonstrated a clear desire for transatlantic cooperation through various visits to representatives of the Trump administration and the MAGA movement, which are considered indispensable for joining the government in Germany.

In its new National Security Strategy (NSS), the Trump administration explicitly supports the inclusion of far-right parties in European government coalitions. By accepting US power politics against Venezuela, the AfD could, according to an expert from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), position itself as a party that “aligns Germany and Europe with a new order.”

The German right as the new regular at the White House

Since last autumn, relations between the AfD and certain sections of the Republicans and the MAGA movement have intensified significantly.

In September, Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag (Federal Parliament), was received at the White House for talks. According to her own statements, she also met with the team of Vice President JD Vance.

At the end of September, Markus Frohnmaier, the foreign policy spokesperson for the AfD parliamentary group, and Jan Wenzel Schmidt, a member of the parliamentary group’s foreign affairs working group, traveled to Washington to hold talks with, among others, Darren Beattie, an influential official.

In return, at the end of October, Alex Bruesewitz, one of President Donald Trump’s social media campaign strategists, visited Berlin to teach the AfD parliamentary group tried-and-tested PR techniques for online campaigning.

To the applause of AfD MPs, Bruesewitz declared that they were in a “spiritual war” against “Marxists” and “globalists.”

AfD members honored by the Young Republicans Club

In mid-December, approximately 20 AfD politicians traveled to the US again; this time to New York to attend the annual gala event of the New York Young Republican Club.

This organization, whose members consist of Republican Party members aged 18 to 40, is considered part of the party’s right wing and maintains good relations with leading circles of the MAGA movement.

The reason for the participation of AfD politicians was the presentation of the Allen Welsh Dulles Award to Frohnmaier. Named after the man who served as CIA director between 1953 and 1961, this award is given to individuals who, in the view of the New York Young Republican Club, particularly embody Dulles’s “aggressive anti-Marxist spirit.”

Regarding the award given to Frohnmaier, it was stated that he earned this honor through his “courageous work in Germany’s particularly oppressive and hostile political environment.”

Frohnmaier had recently met with Sarah Rogers, a US State Department official, who complained about allegations of political censorship in Europe in a video released in early December. The video concerned measures taken against the far right.

New US National Security Strategy benefits the AfD

Frohnmaier later announced that he had specifically discussed the new US National Security Strategy (NSS) with Rogers.

The strategy not only focuses on bringing Latin America and the Caribbean under full US dominance but also praises the “increasing influence of patriotic parties in Europe,” such as the AfD and other parties belonging to the Patriots for Europe (PfE) alliance. It declares an intention to “fuel their resistance” against the current trajectory of the powers that have dominated Europe to date, such as opposition to the acceptance of refugees.

On the basis of such similarities between the AfD and the MAGA movement, cooperation appears set to intensify further.

Frohnmaier announced that he has invited US State Department officials and members of Congress to an event to be held in Germany at the same time as the Munich Security Conference.

The ground for an AfD-CDU alliance: Transatlantic realignment

The intensifying rapprochement of the AfD with the MAGA movement and the Trump administration is an important step toward gaining coalition capability.

Without having to abandon its core positions, the AfD is demonstrating a willingness to engage in transatlantic cooperation, which is essential for potential coalition partners CDU and CSU; at the same time, it fends off criticism that its foreign policy is focused solely on Russia.

The US invasion of Venezuela provides the AfD with an opportunity to demonstrate its proximity to the CDU/CSU. Like Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, Frohnmaier did not criticize the US invasion policy in his reactions.

Claiming that the Venezuelan people are not shedding tears for Maduro and that those currently opposing the US are taking an “overly moralistic” stance, Frohnmaier said, “Great powers do what great powers always do,” and argued that the task now is to “learn to deal with this better and respond to it.”

AfD foreign policy expert Matthias Moosdorf also stated that the decisive factor is the “factual actions of the great powers.”

Jacob Ross, an expert from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), referred to the AfD’s “pure great power” politics, describing it as a party profiling itself as the one “aligning the country and the continent with a new order.”

The anti-far-right “firewall” in the EP has collapsed

The willingness of the CDU/CSU to avoid any criticism of US power politics adds another point of convergence with the AfD.

In November, conservative and far-right parties in the European Parliament (EP), including the CDU/CSU and the AfD, voted together to significantly water down the supply chain directive, which they had been unable to pass alongside the Social Democrats and Greens.

Thus, for the first time, the “cordon sanitaire” (“security wall”) was breached in a politically significant decision.

At the same time, small and medium-sized enterprises in the German economy have publicly shown their willingness to establish a dialogue with the AfD.

Even before the federal elections, current Chancellor Merz passed a motion in the Bundestag, made possible by AfD support, primarily to block refugees. The foundation for the possible coalition he created with that motion has been steadily expanding ever since.