AfD's Frohnmaier in Washington Again

Just a few days before the state election in Baden-Württemberg on March 8, the AfD’s lead candidate, Markus Frohnmaier, traveled to Washington, D.C. (U.S.) for an international conference instead of campaigning at home. This decision has been met with some confusion among AfD members. Compounding the issue, Frohnmaier has come under pressure because, like many of his party colleagues, he apparently secured lucrative positions for family members with other AfD lawmakers: Reports indicate that Frohnmaier’s father is employed by Diana Zimmer, the AfD member of the Bundestag from Pforzheim.

Nevertheless, the leading foreign policy expert of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag attended the Alliance of Sovereign Nations (ASN) conference organized by Anna Paulina Luna and Turning Point Action from March 4 to 6. There, according to the Republican congresswoman, “Republicans from all over the world would meet to form an alliance. An alliance against the Davos elite, against the globalist agenda, and for sovereignty.” More than 85 representatives from over 35 countries were expected to attend. With this, Luna, along with several other Republican lawmakers, is establishing a Trump-loyal, MAGA-led sovereignist international.

This step follows the ideas outlined in the current 2025 National Security Strategy, as well as proposals from the Heritage Foundation to pursue a form of nationalist internationalism, as Nathan Levine put it in 2025:
"What is needed is a new foundation on which to build an alternative international framework that is more favorable to a strategy of putting the American Republic first—one that dispenses with naïve globalism and champions the nation-state while maintaining peace and advancing prosperity. The United States neither can nor must build this new framework alone, however; around the world, many other nations and political parties are also increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo and would welcome a chance to join Washington in such a project. The Trump Administration need not go it alone."

In addition to Luna, Speaker Mike Johnson represented the U.S. Republicans alongside several other members of Congress. International guests included Arno Gujon (Serbian Progressive Party), George Simion (AUR, Romania), Barbara Bonte (MEP Vlaams Belang, Belgium), Kilvett Bertrand (National Party of Honduras), Petra Steger (MEP FPÖ, Austria), Anna Rathert (AfD), António Tânger Corrêa (Chega, Portugal), Nikoloz Samkharadze (Georgia), Raul Latorre (Paraguay), and Zeljka Cvijanović (SNSD, Bosnia and Herzegovina). A delegation from the AfD in the Bavarian State Parliament, led by faction leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner, was also announced from Germany.