Far-right German party AfD deepens US ties

Germany’s far-right AfD party, long shunned at home, is courting support in Washington, leveraging ties to MAGA personalities who have risen to senior roles in the Trump administration.

- STORY: SARAH MARSH / REUTERS

Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s Jan Wenzel Schmidt, right, and AfD's Christian von Hoffmeister sing 'Germany, Germany above all', the tabooed verse of the German national anthem, at a gathering in a Manhattan club in New York City on Oct 2.

(STORY: SARAH MARSH / REUTERS)

The Alternative for Germany (AfD), classified as extremist by Germany's domestic intelligence service and ostracised by mainstream parties, has held meetings with senior US State Department officials in recent months — a rare move for a far-right opposition party in an allied country, according to sources.

The outreach reflects a growing alignment between the AfD and parts of Mr Trump's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, which has voiced support for the party's complaints about political repression at home and its hardline stance on immigration.

At a private reception in Manhattan earlier this month, an opera tenor serenaded AfD lawmakers Jan Wenzel Schmidt and Kay Gottschalk with the taboo first stanza of Germany’s national anthem: “Germany, Germany above all, above all in the world” — lyrics the Nazis used to assert German superiority.

Mr Schmidt, fresh from a meeting with a top US foreign service official, joined in the singing with hand over heart.

He later denied to Reuters any link between the lyrics and the Nazis.