By Hussein Waaile and Sarah Marsh
NEW YORK/BERLIN, Dec 14 (Reuters) – A senior German far-right lawmaker called for an alliance between U.S. and German nationalist parties at a MAGA gala on Saturday where he was being honored, buoyed by a new U.S. security strategy praising Europe’s patriotic parties.
Markus Frohnmaier was among some 20 state, federal and EU lawmakers from the Alternative for Germany to attend the annual black-tie gala hosted by the New York Young Republican Club.
The showpiece gala has become a gathering point for MAGA-aligned Republicans and international far-right figures in recent years, with U.S. President Donald Trump himself headlining it two years ago.
Many European leaders fear the Trump administration’s growing backing for the continent’s far right parties could lend them greater legitimacy and help propel them to power. The anti-migrant AfD is already polling first in nationwide German surveys ahead of five state elections in 2026.
The U.S. strategy document published last week frames Europe as stifling free speech and political opposition, and says Washington should focus on “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory”.
“The alliance between American and German patriots is the nightmare of the liberal elites – and it is the hope of the free world,” Frohnmaier said in a speech at the gala.
“Let us reclaim our culture, let us reclaim our nations, and let us make the West whole again.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking earlier on Saturday, acknowledged Europe had to brace for a fundamental shift in its relations with the United States, adding the era of “Pax Americana” was largely over.
Frohnmaier, the foreign policy spokesperson of the AfD’s federal parliamentary group, met with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers prior to the gala.
Rogers last week published a video criticising alleged incidents of censorship throughout Europe.
Politicians from mainstream German parties have accused the AfD of “anti-German diplomacy”, for railing against what it calls political oppression.
The AfD was classified earlier this year by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as a right wing extremist organisation.
Germany’s other parties refuse to work with its lawmakers – a pact the AfD says is undemocratic.
Ties between the New York Young Republican Club and the AfD stretch back several years, but they have deepened and drawn increasing attention in recent months.
The tenor who sang the U.S. national anthem at the gala sung the taboo first stanza of Germany’s national anthem – used by the Nazis to assert German superiority – at a reception the club held for two visiting AfD lawmakers in October.
Frohnmaier said he had invited U.S. State Department Officials and lawmakers to attend a congress in Germany in February, the same month leaders usually descend on the country for the Munich Security Conference.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Hussein Waaile in New York and Sarah Marsh in Berlin; Additional Reporting by Friederike Heine; Editing by Christina Fincher)
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