Germansplaining: Nathan Gills are everywhere

Reform UK’s Nathan Gill being sentenced to over 10 years in prison for taking bribes to spout pro-Russia rhetoric didn’t attract much attention in Germany. It should have.

First, because Gill’s isn’t an isolated case, but a symptom of Europe-wide corruption and demagoguery. The similarities to so-called Kaviar Diplomatie in Germany are striking: for years, this involved several CDU and CSU politicians lobbying for Azerbaijan’s interests in return for money and gifts. They are or have been on trial and sentenced, albeit not as heavily as former MEP Gill, Nigel Farage’s ally.

There are also investigations into AfD members in the European Parliament and elsewhere. Petr Bystron, for one, has had his immunity lifted. He’s seen as a key player in the affair surrounding the Czech online platform Voice of Europe, suspected of serving as a Russian influence operation. The 52-year-old is accused of having pocketed a five-figure cash sum via the site – which he denies.

But second, some Russian pawns apparently don’t even do it for money (or at least there’s no evidence yet). Interestingly, this gives AfD chairwoman Alice Weidel a headache.

She must have been looking at footage of Italy’s Giorgia Meloni smiling next to a besotted Donald Trump for some time now, wondering: “Couldn’t that be me?” Albeit minus the flirting – Weidel is married to a woman.

With her MAGA-aligned views, she’s drawn towards Trump’s US, and that’s a first for AfD, which used to be anti-American to the bone. Weidel wants to change this, but it’s easier said than done.

Because here comes Team Sochi: a few AfD politicians determined to defend German interests at a symposium in Russia on the shores of the Black Sea, against Weidel’s wishes but with the blessing of the AfD parliamentary group.

Last year, their style of DIY international relations in Sochi made it on to TikTok, featuring an AfD envoy in a dressing gown, posing poolside like a budget Bond villain. It didn’t help that he had also met Vladimir Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev, the man in charge of death threats to the Bundesrepublik.

This year, such fraternising needed to be stopped – at least according to Weidel, who remains touchingly committed to teaching her colleagues the strategic meaning of the word professionalism. She knows close links to Russia are used to question AfD’s patriotism, especially by conservatives.

For a brief moment, Weidel – “I genuinely don’t know what anyone thinks they’re doing there” – looked as if she’d tamed the Russian holiday squad with her authority. But just a day later, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla stomped all over her warnings with a bizarre performance on TV – reminding the country that his party belongs in government as much as Putin belongs on the board of Human Rights Watch.

According to a recent survey, more than 60% believe the AfD is too close to the Kremlin. But a quarter disagree. Of the AfD voters surveyed, only 10% consider the relationship with Russia to be problematic, with 87% disagreeing.

And that’s the new east-west split running straight through the party: Chrupalla gazing lovingly towards Moscow, equating Alexei Navalny’s death in prison with that of Jeffrey Epstein, and Weidel fluttering her eyelashes at Washington DC.

In the far right magazine Compact, she elaborated that the “individual MPs will have no relevant weight in peace negotiations” and that this illusion must be taken away from them. And that there was really no need for anyone to travel to a ski resort: “You are also welcome to stay at home and do parliamentary work,” she said.

Three AfD members went anyway. Jörg Urban, head of AfD Saxony, said that “sadly” he hadn’t been able to go skiing in Sochi after the trip. But “maybe next time,” he said.

His travel companion Steffen Kotré told Russian TV that events like the Europe-Brics symposium proved what the AfD programme spells out: the party wants cheap Russian gas and an end to arms deliveries to Ukraine.