The spectre of the German far right

By Oliver Noyan | @noyan_oliver

Europe could be the first victim of the recent surge of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which stands to benefit the most from the dissatisfaction with the current coalition government in Berlin and could shake up next year’s European elections.

Most leaders probably breathed a sigh of relief following the inconclusive results of the Spanish election on Sunday, as the far-right VOX party considerably underperformed and even lost seats compared to the general election in 2019.

However, it would be premature to expect that the far-right wave in Europe has ebbed away, as the spectre of right-wing populism is currently on the rise in the continent’s largest economy: Germany.

While it has long been seen as a bulwark against nationalist parties, with German society being particularly sensible to anything that could remotely resemble its dark past, the tides seem to have turned.

The far-right AfD is consistently polling at second place with over 20% in recent months – outperforming Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD and coming dangerously close to the conservatives who top the polls.

In next June’s European election, however, AfD could perform even better, as EU elections are still widely considered to be second-order elections in Germany.

Romania’s rising far-right AUR party wants to use next year’s EU elections to reform EU institutions and boost a European right-wing coalition led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s political model, party President George Simion told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

Germany’s updated hydrogen strategy, unveiled on Wednesday places heavy emphasis on imports from Denmark and Norway while securing “blue hydrogen” production from fossil gas using CCS technology to mitigate the related emissions.

A first discussion about new genomic techniques saw many EU agriculture ministers welcome the European Commission’s proposed loosening of the bloc’s gene editing rules as a building block for sustainable farming, while others voiced concerns over potential risks.

The EU’s ‘solidarity lanes’ initiative to export Ukrainian grain via European routes could replace the Black Sea route after Russia’s unilateral withdrawal from the UN-brokered deal, the bloc’s agriculture chief said.

The European Commission is in the process of considering whether to grant further farming exemptions from environmental measures following requests from member states, although it does not yet have a clear idea about the impact of previous derogations on food security.

Poland is prepared to introduce its own unilateral ban on agricultural products imported from Ukraine if the EU decides against extending the protective measures already in place, the Polish agricultural minister told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

The European Commission opened on Tuesday a formal investigation into French multimedia conglomerate Vivendi’s acquisition of publisher Lagardère over fears that the deal was implemented before the EU authority’s green light.

Don’t miss this week’s Health Brief, the last one before the holidays.

Look out for…

• Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides participates in informal meeting of Health Ministers organised by the Spanish Council Presidency in Las Palmas on Friday.
• Informal meeting of competitiveness ministers on Thursday-Friday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Alice Taylor/Zoran Radosavljevic]