AfD: Support from the US

The AfD continues to enjoy a foreign policy upswing, which was triggered this year by the support of their electoral campaign from Elon Musk and other members of the Trump administration, as well as backing from Viktor Orbán. In recent weeks, AfD members have reported several trips to the US and meetings with members of the US government while parliaments were still on summer recess. In mid-September, Beatrix von Storch and Joachim Paul visited the capital Washington, where they met with representatives from the State Department and the office of Vice President J.D. Vance, among others, to request their support. Paul had recently been rejected by the election committee in Rhineland-Palatinate due to doubts about his loyalty to the constitution. Von Storch's trip had been coordinated with the federal leadership. An employee of the Nius portal also accompanied the visit. The deputy party leader recently attended the Christian fundamentalist March for Life in Berlin. You can find our report on the march here.

On 1 October, the two AfD foreign policy experts Markus Frohnmaier and Jan Wenzel Schmidt also met with Darren Beattie, Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, in Washington. Two days earlier, Frohnmaier had appeared at Georgetown University College Republicans, where he spoke on the topic of 'The Ascending Right in the West'. Schmidt, meanwhile, attended an event at the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) on 2 October. Under the motto 'Drinks with the AfD', AfD finance committee member Kay Gottschalk and Schmidt met with guests there. Frohnmaier plans to visit the NYYRC in December.

Meanwhile, former international shooting star Maximilian Krah remains in Berlin. His immunity was lifted by the German Bundestag, and his business and private premises were searched. His former employee in the European Parliament, Jian Guo, recently received a prison sentence of four years and nine months.

Redacción: Ulli Jentsch