I materially agree with Filipp Piatov’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Here’s the meat of it:
MAGA sees the AfD as a natural ally in Europe’s largest and most powerful economy. But figures such as Elon Musk and Mr. Vance may not realize that influencers within the AfD consider the U.S. to be Germany’s ideological and most dangerous adversary. They view MAGA as nothing more than a short-term, highly useful ally. Ms. Weidel recently wrote an op-ed referring to Germans as “slaves” of the U.S., offering a glimpse into the party’s deeply anti-Western ideology.
Most of the time Ms. Weidel treads carefully when indulging her party’s deep-seated anti-American sentiments. Her good relations with Mr. Musk are seen as so valuable in the current campaign that even the party’s radical right-wing faction remains conspicuously silent on the matter. Others are less discreet. Björn Höcke, an influential AfD politician, declared in a 2022 speech that the U.S. was an “extraneous power” deliberately driving a wedge between Germany and Russia. He didn’t warn of Germany’s dependence on Russian energy but of its reliance on American liquefied natural gas. He further claimed that America’s goal for the past century has been to prevent a German-Russian alliance because such a partnership could challenge U.S. global dominance.
concluding:
Superficial parallels exist between the Republican Party and the AfD, largely shaped by media. But the AfD isn’t Germany’s equivalent of MAGA. It’s becoming a “German Race First” party. Its ideologues fantasize about a rebirth of an ethnically pure German Volk. It is no coincidence that Mr. Höcke lamented the portrayal of Hitler as “absolutely evil,” or that Maximilian Krah, the party’s lead candidate for the EU elections, publicly declared that not all members of the SS—Hitler’s elite killing troops—should automatically be considered criminals.
It is no accident that AfD politicians have spent years forging ties with America’s greatest geopolitical adversaries, particularly Russia and China. AfD delegations have made obsequious pilgrimages to Moscow. Ms. Weidel has routinely held private meetings at the Chinese ambassador’s residence in Berlin. Last year, an assistant to Mr. Krah, the AfD’s most vocal advocate for a close relationship with the Chinese regime, was arrested in Leipzig on suspicion of espionage for China.
For the Trump administration, the AfD might prove a useful tool for stirring headlines and influencing debates within Germany. But an ally? That, it can never be.
My version would be that AfD is a German political party not an American political party. I think that Americans are generally wrong when they draw analogies between American political parties and foreign ones. We don’t understand the context. Tories are not Republicans. Labour is not the Democrats. No German political party is the natural ally of any American political party for the simple reason that it’s a German political party.
I agree with the caution on the AfD.
Some of the positions of the AfD seem fanciful, like reconciling with Russia and rebuild Nordstream II. Even if the conflict with Ukraine ends tomorrow (which is a good desire to have); humpty dumpty fell off a wall…. time can’t be unwound like that.
Its also not the best for US officials to replace a firewall on discussions with the “fringe” (AfD, “die Linke”, “BSW”) with a firewall on discussions with the mainstream — like Vance did in Munich, the problem is neither Vance nor the mainstream Germans understand the others concerns. But it must be said, the Europeans (and Canada) should have an outreach with not just the Hamiltonians and Wilsonians in the US, but the Jacksonians and Jeffersonians too. It would make for a much healthier dialogue between fellow democracies if we understood the range of opinions in others.
Like did Biden realize the Ukraine war is actually quite unpopular in Germany (something like 40% are against military aid). That places real constraints on the German government. Should it inform how he managed negotiations (or the lack thereof)?