Despite these extensive ties, AfD leaders have sought to distance themselves from the Trump administration over concerns that the U.S. president’s unpopularity in Germany could turn into an electoral liability.
AfD scored a historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt’s state election on Sept. 6, winning 43.8 percent of the vote — more than twice its 2021 result. It grants the party 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament, leaving it three seats short of an outright majority and raising the prospect of Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.
The right-wing party advocates a sharply restrictive immigration policy, alongside a nationalist and socially conservative agenda. It also opposes further military support for Ukraine, calls for an end to sanctions on Russia and closer ties with Moscow.
Trump’s praise has already sparked a backlash in Berlin. Dirk Wiese, the chief whip in the Bundestag of the center-left Social Democratic Party — the coalition partners of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said Trump’s comments were “not acceptable.” He added: “I don’t think we can put up with that, at least as the federal government.”