France's National Rally party reacted to the victory of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party with a noticeable silence on Monday, a move that reflects its complicated ties to the party.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella — who are respectively campaigning to be France's next president and prime minister — made no mention of the AfD after the party took 43.8% of votes in Saxony-Anhalt’s elections, racing ahead of Christian Democratic Union, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party, which secured 17.2%.
Meanwhile, the Reconquête party — which is positioned further to the right than the National Rally and sits in the same group as the AfD in the European Parliament — welcomed the victory, reflecting political divergences within France's far-right.
Although the National Rally's leading figures have yet to comment publicly, other MPs from the party have weighed in. Bardella had also addressed the issue before the vote, when reporters at the Ambrosetti Forum — an annual economic and geopolitical conference held in Italy — questioned him about the prospect of the National Rally renewing ties with the AfD on Saturday.
In response, he said that this was not "planned," but underlined that "the electoral pressure exerted by the AfD in Germany has helped shift the political landscape within [Chancellor Friedrich] Merz's government, as Germany reinstated border controls a few months ago."
