French foreign minister warns against normalization of far-right ideas after AfD victory in Germany

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Monday urged Europe to confront the rise of the far right following the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party's electoral victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.

"The far right: Let us open our eyes wide," Barrot said on US social media company X.

He described the result as an "overwhelming electoral victory" for a "neo-Nazi, anti-European and pro-Putin far right," saying it illustrated the scale and strength of a political wave sweeping across Europe for two decades.

Barrot accused the AfD of betraying the European spirit, citing "historical revisionism, placing foreigners in camps, the glorification of xenophobia even in school curricula, and bringing the media to heel."

"Our first responsibility is to resist the normalization of far-right ideas," he said, adding that such ideas had previously led Europe "to ruin and dishonor."

"There can be no compromise," he stressed.

Barrot, however, said political leaders must also recognize the despair driving support for far-right ideas and parties, pointing to social decline, injustice and a sense of dispossession.

"Without a response to this cry of anger directed by the peoples of Europe at political leaders, the worst is inevitable," he warned.

Referring to the beginning of what he called a major democratic debate in France, Barrot said those rejecting "the poison of extremism" must urgently respond to public anger.

The far-right AfD won around 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, more than doubling its support from the previous state election in 2021 and finishing far ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union, which secured around 17%.