Iran, FT: “Far-right AfD distances itself from Trump, unpopular war”

Brussels, Apr. 4 (LaPresse) – The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is distancing itself from Donald Trump, as the war in Iran proves deeply unpopular and clouds hopes for an economic recovery in Europe’s most populous nation. This is reported by the Financial Times. Last week, the party asked its parliamentarians who are forging ties with the president’s Maga movement to reduce visits to the United States. “Even before the war, the situation was far from optimal,” a senior party official told the Financial Times. “The AfD wants to maintain more targeted contacts and will no longer send large groups.” Despite efforts to court Maga and other figures close to Trump, the party co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla last month unequivocally condemned the U.S. decision to bomb Iran. Weidel, considered the most pro-American voice in the party leadership, accused Washington of acting without a plan and called the conflict “a disaster.” Jacob Ross, a researcher at the Berlin think tank German Council on Foreign Relations, stated that the AfD’s position “began to change” at the start of this year, when Trump threatened to annex Greenland. The shift comes as the AfD prepares for crucial regional elections in two eastern states that were once part of the communist German Democratic Republic, where anti-American sentiment remains widespread. The party is aiming for a historic victory in the September elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.