Despite a series of recent scandals, Germany’s far-right AfD party managed to post its best national result in its history in European elections on Sunday (9 June), beating even Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD.

Pre-midnight forecasts had the party in second place, behind the centre-right winner CDU/CSU (30.2%), with its highest ever national election result (15.9%) and ahead of the centre-left governing parties .

The AfD managed to become the strongest political force in the former East Germany where it came in first place, along with the CDU/CSU, among young voters aged 16-24.

The result shocked centrist parties in Germany, where the far right has traditionally remained politically ostracized due to the country’s fascist past.

Christian Petri, the SPD’s chief EU lawmaker, called it “shocking”.

“The center of the country should really be worried,” he told Euractiv.

The AfD even beat the predictions of the last poll ahead of the election, which put it at 14%. Still, the result is below the poll forecast that had put him at a record high of 20% earlier this year, before scandals erupted over his leading candidates – Maximilian Krach and Petr Bistron – who were accused of bribery and influence peddling. in favor of Russia and China.

According to Petr, this shows that far-right structures are consolidating. On the other hand, Anton Hofreiter, a leading MP for the Greens, the SPD’s junior coalition partner, attributed it to the ongoing global crises.

“A high level of insecurity due to multiple crises often leads to a strengthening of authoritarian tendencies,” he told Euractiv.

Party co-chair Alice Weidel said the AfD has benefited from the fact that Germans have become “much more Eurosceptic”, even though Germany remains one of the most pro-European countries.

Larger member states are leading the far-right shift

With the AfD projected to take 16 seats in the European Parliament, it is also notably a key driver of a wider far-right shift in Europe.

The right-wing groups ECR and ID, as well as AfD and Fidesz as unaffiliated parties, were projected to take about a quarter of the seats in the new parliament. Almost 50% of these seats went to parties from only the largest member states – namely France, Italy and Germany – including the AfD.

In France, the far-right Rassemblement National had a triumphant victory, with President Emmanuel Macron finally calling early parliamentary elections, while Meloni’s ruling Fratelli d’Italia party in Italy finally came out on top.

However, it was uncertain whether the AfD’s top two candidates would take their seats in Brussels, given their involvement in the party’s pre-election scandals.

Weidel said Sunday night that “the delegation will decide.”