There are about 1,200 kilometers between Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, and the northern Spanish border. But the echo of the overwhelming victory of Alternative for Germany, which brings far-right ultranationalism closer to power in an eastern land of about two million inhabitants in the country that gave birth to Nazism, resounded loudly and clearly in Spanish politics this Monday, showing that its impact goes beyond German borders. And also demonstrating that the party led by Alice Weidel, which promises a program of mass deportations and includes figures who downplay Nazism, has allies in the Spanish political spectrum. The affinities are concentrated in the xenophobic far right. Separated by the nation whose essence they claim to protect — Spain in one case and Catalonia in the other — Vox and Aliança Catalana nevertheless coincided in showing their affinity with Alternative for Germany, whose success they see as a “hope.”
Santiago Abascal, president of Vox, addressed both the party leader, Alice Weidel, and their candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, whom he congratulated on X for their “spectacular result,” a “hope for Germany and for Europe.” In a media briefing in Madrid, Jorge Buxadé, head of Vox’s European delegation, elaborated the party’s position on what it considers a “victory” of the “German people” and emphasized the similarities between AfD — the party’s German acronym — and his party on issues such as rejection of “mass immigration” and the “Green Deal,” two areas in which they have obtained concessions from the PP in their 2026 regional agreements.
Presenting Sunday’s result as a sign of the vitality of what he usually calls “patriotic forces,” the MEP cited on X a poll showing how AfD wins in all age groups except those 70 and over, where it ties, something far from what Vox achieves, which is third after the PP and PSOE from age 45 onwards, according to the 40dB. poll published this Monday by EL PAÍS.
Buxadé took advantage of the still open outcome of the power struggle in Saxony-Anhalt — AfD does not have an absolute majority — to pressure the traditional European right. “We will have to be alert,” he said, to see if the European People’s Party, to which the PP and the German CDU belong, instructs this formation to “make a pact with the entire left” and prevent Weidel’s party from coming to power.
Aliança against Junts
Abascal and members of his leadership have held meetings with Weidel over the years, and Vox shows ideological affinity with this party, with which it also shares support for the campaign for European “ethnic continuity” Save Europe Act. However, AfD is not among the European far-right groups with which Vox has the most relations. In fact, they belong to different groups in the European Parliament. While Vox is in Patriots for Europe alongside National Rally (France), Fidesz (Hungary), and other forces, AfD leads Europe of Sovereign Nations, considered even more radical, alongside far-right parties from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Slovakia. It is the group where the military Roberto Vannacci, founder of Futuro Nacional, who aims to gain ground from the right against Brothers of Italy led by Giorgia Meloni, has landed. None of this prevented Vox from openly showing its affinity with Weidel and her party this Monday.
Aliança Catalana has for two years now pointed to Weidel’s party as a particularly close force. In September 2024, an Aliança representative, Pau Nadal, met with AfD MEP Siegbert Droese in Brussels, where the independence party noted the “existence of common interests between Catalonia and Germany regarding the preservation of our identity, our industry, and the fight against Islamization.” Aliança, whose plans in European politics are still to be clarified, thus identified AfD as a reference, a position it has maintained since and which was expressed this Monday in its assessment of AfD’s success.
In a message on X, Aliança congratulated AfD on its result, which “closes a decadent and dark political stage and opens a door to hope.” “Another Germany and another Europe are possible, guaranteeing the sovereignty of nations and a shared future that is free, prosperous, safe, and Western. Aliança Catalana and Catalonia will not miss this appointment with history,” the party said. On the same social network, Aliança leader Sílvia Orriols took advantage of a message from Josep Rull, a member of Junts, to attack that party. “History insists on repeating itself,” the Parliament president had written about Saxony-Anhalt, to which Orriols responded by calling him “naive” and attacking his “pro-immigration policies” as “suicidal.”
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Se Acabó La Fiesta (SALF), Alvise Pérez’s party, did not publish any reaction to the result, as it is “not anyone’s Spanish branch,” the party explained in writing to this newspaper. In that same message, it stated that AfD’s result shows that “it is not a party, it is a people,” and that it deserves to “be allowed to govern.” SALF “also” wants, like AfD, “a safe, democratic, and prosperous country,” the party notes.
Alert and self-criticism on the left
While Vox and Aliança showed their satisfaction, the left was torn between antifascist alert and calls for self-criticism and urgent action to prevent the electoral outcome that occurred in the eastern land from repeating in Spain. The Government took note of the German result starting with the president, Pedro Sánchez, who in a meeting with PSOE parliamentarians presented Weidel’s success as proof of the need to maintain the battle against the “ultra threat.” More forceful was the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who in an interview with Radiocable said that the solution to problems is not to “put oneself in the hands of the Nazis.”
To the left of the PSOE, AfD’s victory was the subject of multiple analyses leading to conclusions applicable to Spanish politics. The Minister of Childhood, Sira Rego, from IU, wrote on the Bluesky network that the “lesson” from the result is that if the far right “manages to set the agenda, all politics ends up playing on their field.” “The response is to build an alternative that restores certainties without giving up rights,” she pointed out. In a press conference in Madrid, Enrique Santiago, IU’s parliamentary spokesperson, called on the PSOE to react in Ceuta and transfer migrants to the Peninsula, because otherwise it is doing the “electoral campaign” for the PP and Vox and bringing Spain closer to the Saxony-Anhalt scenario.
“Fear of the far right is not enough to stop it. The best defense is a democracy that guarantees rights and improves the lives of the majority: decent wages, affordable housing, and an economy at the service of the people,” wrote Movimiento Sumar on Bluesky. “Humanist appeals are not enough,” “bold social policies” must be made, said Gerardo Pisarello, spokesperson for the Comuns, to the media in Barcelona. Also to the media but in Madrid, Pablo Fernández, spokesperson for Podemos, attributed AfD’s success to the “timidity” of the left, channeling through the German result his usual discourse in defense of a “brave left.” ERC’s parliamentary spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, in his line of calling on the left to self-criticize, wrote on X that progressive forces must “focus on problems” and “not on lexicon,” and give more importance to utility than purity.
Messages of concern were not limited to the left. Nationalist forces from the conservative camp such as the PNV and Junts also expressed their displeasure. In an interview on SER, the Basque lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, said that AfD’s victory exemplifies “the risk faced by Western democracies.” For his part, Carles Puigdemont, leader of Junts, called it a “tragedy” on X and a boost to a model that implies “less deliberation, more authoritarianism, and more social violence.” And he took the opportunity to send a message to the CDU, the big loser on Sunday. Puigdemont said that the German Christian Democrats do not make him “feel sorry” for having been “lackeys” of the PP in their positions against Catalan independence.
The low profile was dominant in the PP. A journalist asked at a press conference in Madrid Borja Sémper, the party spokesperson, about Buxadé’s message warning of a possible pact that would leave AfD out of power. Sémper said what seemed “striking” to him was that the “far right” and the “far left” — referring to the BSW party, with workerist rhetoric, pro-Russian and anti-immigration — were open to a pact in Saxony-Anhalt and expressed his support for the CDU, a party to which he wished better results in the future.
