Germany’s AfD deepens ties with Trump administration and MAGA movement

Alternative for Germany (AfD) is deepening its ties with the Trump administration, preparing to become a key European branch of the MAGA movement.

According to a report in German Foreign Policy, several senior AfD officials were recently received at the White House and the US State Department.

Washington has begun pressuring Berlin to end the AfD’s exclusion from mainstream German politics and will send Trump’s campaign strategist, Alex Bruesewitz, to Berlin to advise the party.

Bruesewitz sees Trump and the AfD as being in a “spiritual war” against “Marxists” and “globalists.”

AfD officials become regulars at the White House

Polls continue to show the AfD as the strongest party with 26%, ahead of the CDU/CSU.

Furthermore, support from the Trump administration is rapidly increasing. In mid-September, Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the AfD’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag, and Joachim Paul, a former mayoral candidate for Ludwigshafen (Rhineland-Palatinate), were received at the White House, notably by staff of Vice President JD Vance and State Department employees. A follow-up meeting at the State Department was reportedly planned.

At the end of September, AfD parliamentarians Markus Frohnmaier and Jan Wenzel Schmidt also traveled to the US capital. There, they met with, among others, Darren Beattie, a senior US State Department official who served as a speechwriter during President Donald Trump’s first term and is now considered an influential advisor.

It was recently announced that AfD leader Alice Weidel has also received an invitation to visit Washington.

Trump and AfD unite in a ‘spiritual war against Marxists’

Washington has begun to support the AfD in two ways. On one hand, pressure is mounting to dismantle the cordon sanitaire (“sanitary cordon”) established against the AfD.

In September, AfD politician Paul was received at the White House after the responsible electoral committee in Ludwigshafen refused to approve his candidacy due to his connections to the far-right and his call for mass deportations (“remigration”).

US Vice President Vance declared at the Munich Security Conference on February 14 that “mass migration” is the most urgent problem facing the Western world and that there should be “no place for firewalls.”

It has now emerged that after receiving Paul, the Trump administration will apply pressure on Berlin. A far-right German “influencer” has also reportedly applied for asylum in the US, claiming he is being “persecuted” in Germany for his views. The legal proceedings could further increase the pressure.

On the other hand, Washington has also started providing practical support to the AfD. Last week, Alex Bruesewitz, one of Trump’s social media campaign strategists, was in Berlin to teach campaign techniques to the AfD.

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

The ‘center-right’ faces a moment of decision in the EP

At the same time, the European Parliament (EP) may once again face the issue of a firewall against the far-right, this time in a more radical form.

The majority “center-right” European People’s Party (EPP) group is considering collaborating with the national-conservative European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the “far-right” Patriots for Europe (PfE) to secure a radical weakening of the supply chain directive. The German economy and Chancellor Friedrich Merz are insistent on weakening the directive.

The starting point for the current disputes in the EP was the failure on October 22 of an attempt to relax the Supply Chain Directive in the interests of the economy.

Several EP members (allegedly social democrats) refused to approve the draft previously agreed upon by the EPP, the liberals (Renew), and the social democrat (S&D) groups.

This was followed by fierce criticism, particularly from conservative politicians and industrialists. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused the democratically elected European Parliament, unlike other EU bodies, of making a “fatal mistake,” calling the vote “unacceptable” and stating, “This cannot continue.”

There were also strong reactions from the business community. Wolfgang Große Entrup, CEO of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), said in his initial statement that he was “furious and astonished.”

An open letter signed last week by various German business associations stated that the “expectations of the business community” from European policy were clear: the “reduction” of bureaucracy must be implemented “decisively” without delay.

Supply chain directive vote is critical in the EP

To be able to implement the weakening of the supply chain directive nonetheless, the parliamentary leadership, under President Roberta Metsola, has scheduled a new vote for this Thursday (November 13).

On the other hand, the EPP presented a second draft last week containing much more extensive restrictions, which the S&D finds unacceptable.

This draft could be passed with the support of far-right groups. This “far-right” would include not only the ECR and PfE but likely also the AfD-led Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group.

In such a scenario, the EPP’s cooperation with far-right groups would become further normalized.

The S&D and the Greens group will be under pressure, forced to approve a measure they fundamentally reject to prevent the far-right from gaining a majority.

With the help of the ECR, PfE, and ESN, or with the help of a blackmailed S&D group, the weakening of the Supply Chain Directive is considered a certainty.