The transatlantic far right
The new US administration invites far-right parties, including the AfD, to Trump’s inauguration – an initiative for normalisation and transatlantic networking.
WASHINGTON/BERLIN (own report) - The new US administration has offered the AfD and other extreme right-wing parties from around Europe a stage for their further normalisation and for transatlantic networking. This is the significance of their invitation to President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Of the many heads of state and government in the European Union, only the most right-wing, Giorgia Meloni, was invited to the major event, which attracted worldwide attention. Trump’s team also welcomed representatives from the Belgian Vlaams Belang, the Spanish Vox party, the French Reconquête! party and, from outside the EU, the British Reform UK party. The AfD was also represented in the US capital with two of its senior functionaries. Their presence at Trump’s inauguration will effectively counteract attempts by the political establishment to ostracise them. Indeed, they will also be integrated to some extent into the network of transatlantic relations. We can see the emergence of the vague outlines of a transatlantic hard right. The Trump administration, now the driving force behind this trend, is backed by tech oligarchs such as Elon Musk. These supporters are among the richest people in the world and some of them openly espouse anti-democratic ideologies.
Meloni plays a key role
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was the only one of the heads of state and government of the 27 EU member states to receive an official invitation to Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Interestingly, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is quite close to Trump politically, was not invited. Meloni had previously visited Trump in Mar-a-Lago on 4 January for an exchange of views. She is now considered predestined for the role of mediator between the new US president and the EU in the context of likely conflicts going forward. Trump’s inauguration was attended by top officials from various parties that form a right-wing faction in the European Parliament together with Meloni’s own party, Fratelli d’Italia. The European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR) embraces figures such as the former Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki from the PiS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) party, and George Simion, the leader of the Romanian AUR party (Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor). Politicians from parties that form another parliamentary faction in the European Parliament in alliance with Orbán’s Fidesz party were also present. This group, called the Patriots for Europe (PfE), includes the leaders of the Belgian Vlaams Belang, Tom Van Grieken, the Spanish Vox party, Santiago Abascal, and the Portuguese Chega! party, André Ventura.[1]
Nigel Farage and Éric Zemmour
The celebrations in Washington were also attended by far-right politicians from the three largest countries in Western Europe, i.e. France, the UK and Germany. Nigel Farage, now heading the Reform UK party, has been particular close to Trump for years. He also enjoyed overt support from Elon Musk, until recently when Farage came under attack from the tech oligarch for not allying with a violent hard-right figure in England. But Farage is likely to repair his relationship with Musk. Also travelling to the event were two politicians from the right wing of the Conservative Party, former Prime Minister Liz Truss and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman. In France, Éric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo from the Reconquête! party had received invitations, but not the leadership of the Rassemblement National (RN) around Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.[2] A few years ago, Zemmour was seen as the future hope of the extreme right in France. But despite the backing of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, he only received seven per cent in the presidential race in April 2022. Zemmour did do well in well-healed constituencies such as the posh Parisian district of the 16th arrondissement or on the Côte d'Azur. However, anti-immigrant Zemmour and his party Reconquête! were ultimately unable to prevail against the rapidly growing RN.
The AfD
Finally, several officials from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) were invited from Germany. Although the AfD has traditionally had a difficult relationship with the United States, Trump enjoys considerable sympathy among their supporters. A survey conducted at the beginning of December revealed that 54% of AfD supporters were in favour of the German government putting aside its scepticisms and approaching the Trump administration with open arms. The proportion of party supporters who called for this stance was significantly higher in the AfD than in any other party (FDP: 37 per cent; CDU/CSU: 34 per cent; SPD: 24 per cent; Greens: 23 per cent).[3] In particular, AfD federal spokesperson Alice Weidel was invited to Trump’s inauguration show. She had been strongly praised by Elon Musk, who held a live online chat with her on 9 January. However, Weidel did not turn up in person, explaining that she was unavailable due to the election campaign commitments in Germany. The party’s co-spokesperson, Tino Chrupalla, went instead. Chrupalla actually belongs to the wing of the party that has major reservations about Germany’s relations with the United States. He has explicitly criticised Trump’s “America first” policies, but agreed to attend, accompanied by Beatrix von Storch, the deputy chair of the AfD parliamentary group.
Engaging and networking
Their high-profile participation in Trump’s inauguration is helping the parties of the far right in Europe to move ahead strongly on their agenda of normalisation. At EU level, the process is already well advanced. Through Meloni in particular, with her Fratelli d'Italia party and other parties of the ECR group, these political forces are now largely integrated into the political establishment of the Union.[4] This has not yet happened in the case of parties in the PfE group or the AfD but they, too, can now hope for some progress on normalisation. Attendance in Washington gave them the opportunities for networking both internationally and, above all, transatlantically. This is by no means a given. After all, the far right in Europe is traditionally more pro-Russian than transatlantic. Trump’s inauguration also drew politicians from the far right in Latin America, including Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The latter is not allowed to leave Brazil due to ongoing criminal proceedings against him. Also in Washington was Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who has been seeking to establish a transatlantic network with Europe’s far right with visits to Spain and Germany (german-foreign-policy.com reported [5]).
‘The unthinking demos’
This second Trump administration, which will be driving forward the hard-right trend, is now supported by tech oligarchs such as Elon Musk. The three richest people in the world, Musk, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta/Facebook), all attended the inauguration in a display of acquiescence. Trump’s early supporters in his first term included tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel was previously involved in the founding not only of PayPal but also of Palantir, a tech company specialising in the analysis of huge amounts of data, especially under contracts from in the US intelligence services and the military. Thiel, who gathered together Trump’s billionaire entourage in Washington at a party on Saturday to mark the upcoming inauguration, is regarded as Vice President JD Vance’s political mentor. He published an essay in April 2009 in which he wrote, “In our time, the great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms – from the totalitarian and fundamentalist catastrophes to unthinking demos that guides so-called ‘social democracy’. Thiel declares, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”[6]
More on this topic: An oligarch for the AfD and Ein Oligarch für die AfD (II).
[1] Nicholas Vinocur, Nahal Toosi: Who’s been invited? World’s far right populists pack guest list for Trump’s inauguration. politico.eu 16.01.2025.
[2] Lucas Minisini: Investiture de Donald Trump : les grandes manœuvres de Sarah Knafo pour se faire inviter avec Eric Zemmour. lemonde.fr 18.01.2025.
[3] Sollte die Bundesregierung aktiv auf Trump zugehen oder eher abwarten? In: Internationale Politik Januar/Februar 2025. p. 5.
[4] See also: The firewall is crumbling, Die Brandmauer rutscht (II) and Die Brandmauer bricht.
[5] See also: Milei auf Europareise (I) and Milei auf Europareise (III).
[6] Peter Thiel: The Education of a Libertarian. cato-unbound.org 13.04.2009.
