Vote in Strasbourg
EU votes for investigations against AfD party family
Updated on July 7, 2026 – 12:49 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Are the AfD and its allies in Europe violating fundamental values? The EU Parliament wants to have this examined. There is a risk of massive financial consequences.
The European Parliament has voted in favor of an investigation into the right-wing populist party family Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). The responsible supervisory authority should now investigate possible violations by the ESN party, which also includes the AfD heard, check against EU basic values. At the end of the process, the authority could withdraw funding from ESN.
Parliamentarians from the Social Democrats, Liberals, Greens and Left in particular supported the investigation. The chairman of the CDU/CSU group in the EU Parliament, Niclas Herbst, also signed the request for a vote. The leader of the Left Party in the EU Parliament, Martin Schirdewan, said: “I hope that the European Parliament will send a clear signal that European taxpayers’ money will no longer be used for hatred, hate speech and… racism may be abused.”
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The monitoring authority for European parties had previously transmitted information about violations of values by the ESN party to Parliament, the EU Commission and the Council of Member States.
With regard to the AfD, the EU authority refers to a court decision by the administrative court Cologne. It highlights elements from the party program or activities of party representatives that the court judges to be incompatible with human dignity and religious freedom. European parties consist, among other things, of national political parties and must ensure that they also respect core EU values such as human dignity, freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
In addition to the AfD, the French Reconquête under the prominent right-wing extremist Éric Zemmour and the pro-Russian Wasraschdane (German: Rebirth) party also belong Bulgaria to the members of the ESN party. It has existed since 2024. According to Parliament, the approved funding in 2026 was a maximum of around two million euros.
