AfD Seeks State Coalition Partner While Calling German Energy Policy "Crazy"
The far-right party's state-level coalition bid adds political weight to its senior officials' recent Gazprom contacts and calls to revive the Nord Stream pipeline.
Germany's Alternative für Deutschland moved on Monday (2026-09-07) to find a coalition partner in a German state, with the party citing what it described as "crazy energy policy" as its central grievance, Montel reported.8
The bid carries weight beyond one state boundary. AfD was on the verge of winning an absolute majority in Saxony, Foreign Policy reported on August 24 (2026-08-24), a trajectory that has unnerved mainstream parties and raised questions about what a far-right state government would mean for Germany's energy transition.6
The party's energy posture has a specific edge. In early June (2026-06-03 to 2026-06-04), Markus Frohnmaier, AfD's parliamentary foreign policy spokesman, traveled to Russia and met Alexei Miller, chief executive of Gazprom and a long-time confidant of Vladimir Putin, as well as Kirill Dmitriev, one of Putin's top advisers. Frohnmaier called openly for a reopening of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, CNBC TV18 and Yahoo Finance reported.5,4,3
The Nord Stream pipeline remains offline, and neither AfD nor Gazprom addressed publicly what any revival would cost or how long it would take. But Frohnmaier's meetings with Gazprom's chief executive and a senior Kremlin official show the party treating pipeline revival as a live proposition.4,3
ICE Endex TTF front-month gas was at €71.95/MWh early Monday (2026-09-07), with German power quoted at €149.68/MWh. Neither moved visibly on the Montel report in early trading. European benchmark gas prices would be the first to reprice if Nord Stream revival moved from party agenda into a coalition agreement.8
The gap between AfD's energy vision and Germany's current trajectory is wide. Schleswig-Holstein alone has 8.5 gigawatts of installed wind-power capacity and produces around 160% of the electricity it consumes from renewables, exporting the surplus via new transmission lines including connections to Scandinavia, the Economist reported in May (2026-05-19). That is the kind of buildout AfD has labeled dysfunctional.1
Berlin has been moving to lock in alternative gas supply. Canada agreed in May (2026-05-26) to supply Germany with up to one million metric tons of LNG per year for twenty years from a planned west-coast facility, the Financial Post reported. Those volumes would not replace Russian pipeline gas at scale, but the deal reflects how far federal policy has diverged from the Gazprom relationship Frohnmaier is now seeking to revive.2,4
A debate about a German diplomatic reset with Russia has been building in policy circles. Analysis published on September 2 (2026-09-02) noted a strategic vacuum in mainstream German foreign policy that has created room for positions once confined to the fringe.7
AfD's ability to translate energy rhetoric into action depends on which state is involved, which party agrees to join a coalition, and how far federal law permits a state government to depart from national energy commitments. None of that is settled. But Frohnmaier's June (2026-06-04) meetings with Gazprom's Miller show the party has treated Nord Stream revival as an active objective, not a campaign slogan, and a state executive position would give it a formal platform it has not previously held. ICE Endex TTF front-month was unchanged Monday (2026-09-07), unmoved by the Montel report. It may yet.8,4,5,6