LONDON — Nigel Farage described the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “mixed bag,” as the British politician eyes gains in crunch U.K. elections next Thursday.
Germany’s AfD has an “utterly respectable and decent” cultural stance — but its ties with dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin are “very, very difficult,” the right-wing Reform UK leader told Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner for his podcast series MD Meets.
Axel Springer is the owner of POLITICO.
Centrist German politicians have accused the AfD of using its rising influence to act as a mouthpiece for Putin inside Germany — a claim AfD leaders strongly deny. Several AfD members traveled to Sochi in Russia last November to attend a summit on cooperation between Europe and the BRICS — the group of major emerging economies that includes Russia as well as Brazil, India, China, and South Africa.
“I think the pro-Putin stuff … I find it hard to understand,” Farage, a key architect of Brexit, said. “I do find this tie with some of those dictators very, very difficult,” he said, when questioned about its stance on China, Russia and Iran.
The Reform UK leader also claimed to be “slightly confused” by the AfD’s economic policy. “Do they want to be in the euro? Do they want the Deutschmark back? All of it I’ve found a little bit unclear,” he said.
But Farage, who led the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group in the European Union before Brexit in 2020, insists the party is “a very mixed bag.”
“AfD members have sat under my leadership in the European Parliament, some of them I found fine to work with, some of them are still friends,” he said.
“What they do represent is a cultural position that says: ‘We’re German. We’re not ashamed of it. We don’t want this culture to be radically changed by those that come in and want to impose their culture upon us’,” Farage said.
“That’s the emotional part that I fully, fully understand that has been demonized in Germany, as it is in this country as well, and yet actually is an utterly respectable and decent position,” the Reform UK leader added.