French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot said democratic and republican forces have no right to make any concessions to the far right. At the same time, he called for an urgent response to the “despair and public anger” that are fueling the rise of such parties.
The statement was posted on Monday, September 7, on X and was a reaction to the election results in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. There, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won around 44 percent of the vote — a record result for the party in a state election. Barrot called the victory “crushing” and described the AfD as a “neo-Nazi, anti-European and pro-Putin” force. In his view, it illustrates the scale of a wave that has been sweeping across Europe for two decades.
“Our first responsibility is to resist the normalization of far-right ideas. They are well known. They led Europe to ruin and dishonor. Every time democratic and republican forces made concessions, they were devoured by this vile beast. There can be no compromise,” the minister wrote.
He stressed, however, that the causes of the radicals’ rise cannot be ignored: social decline, injustice, and a sense of losing control over one’s own destiny. “Without a response to this cry of anger that the peoples of Europe are directing at political leaders, the worst is inevitable,” Barrot warned.
The French foreign minister linked this to the start of a “major democratic debate” in France and said that everyone who rejects “the poison of extremism” must urgently answer that anger. “It is possible, but it is our last chance,” he concluded.
Barrot also criticized the AfD’s program, calling it a betrayal of the European spirit: historical revisionism, placing foreigners in camps, promoting xenophobia in school curricula, and bringing the media to heel.
