Deputy premiers Tajani and Salvini take opposing views on the regional election victory in Germany of far-right party AfD. Opposition figures warn of a wider European reckoning.
Italy’s governing coalition found itself divided on Sunday over the far-right Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) victory in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, with Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani calling the result alarming while fellow Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini welcomed it warmly.
Tajani, who leads Forza Italia, described the AfD’s win as troubling news for Europe. Salvini, leader of the League and Italy’s transport minister, took the opposite view, writing on X that the outcome reflected a clear public appetite for change, along with demands for greater security and jobs. He dismissed any suggestion that the result should be seen as frightening or dangerous, framing it instead as democracy in action and insisting that a different kind of Europe remains possible.
Vannacci hails a “changing” Europe
Roberto Vannacci, the former general who now leads the newly formed far-right National Future (FnV) party, was similarly upbeat, declaring that Europe is changing and invoking the phrase “nessun dorma” — let no one sleep — to underline his sense that the political mood across the continent is shifting.
Opposition warns of a Europe-wide warning sign
Italy’s opposition parties struck a starkly different tone, arguing that the AfD’s showing in Saxony-Anhalt points to deeper problems for the European Union as a whole. Sandro Ruotolo, a Democratic Party (PD) member of the European Parliament, said the AfD’s roughly 44% share of the vote could not be dismissed as a purely local matter, calling it a signal that ought to concern the whole of Europe.
He added that a result of this scale in Germany, a country whose post-war democratic order was built in part on a determination that history should not repeat itself, demands serious reflection.
