On March 25, German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD) hosted Ein Prozent e.V (One Percent), a white nationalist German organization with strong ties to the pan-European Identitarian movement, to present on “left-wing extremist structures” in the European Parliament.
AfD Members of the European Parliament (MEP) Mary Khan and Alexander Jungbluth extended the invite to Philip Stein, the current director of Ein Prozent, and Michael Schäfer, acting as a representative for Ein Prozent and who was formerly a leader in the violent neo-Nazi group Wernigeröder Aktionsfront“ (Wernigerode Action Front, WAF), and the neo-Nazi youth group Junge Nationalisten (Young Nationalists, JN). AfD’s willingness to welcome Stein and Schäfer into the European parliament is yet another example of the party embracing neo-Nazis and white supremacists as allies, and also shows how the AfD are attempting to export their extremism across the continent.
Promotional material shared by Ein Prozent of their collaboration with AfD MEPs Alexander Jungbluth and Mary Khan. (Source: einprozent.de)
The AfD was designated as right-wing extremist organization by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in May 2025 (AfD is currently challenging the designation in court), and their youth organization, Junge Alternative (Young Alternative, JA) was dissolved in March 2025 to avoid a possible ban due to their own extremism. AfD has documented connections to far-right white nationalists such as the Neue Rechte (New Right), the white nationalist Identitarian movement, and the anti-Muslim movement PEGIDA. None of this appeared to be a problem for American Vice President JD Vance, who met with AfD leader Alice Weidel in February 2025.
Ein Prozent’s European Parliament presentation, at AfD’s behest, is incredibly disturbing given their history of hateful activism and neo-Nazi connections. Ein Prozent, meaning “One Percent,” is short for “One Percent of Our Country,” which is the percentage of Germans they claim they need support from to change the country in their direction. The group is an online Identitarian media outlet founded in 2015 in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis in Germany. On their website, they tout themselves as a “citizens’ initiative” that “protest[s] against the irresponsible policies of mass immigration.” In reality, they peddle and enable extreme racism.
Philip Stein, Ein Prozent’s current leader, is the owner of a small publishing house called “Jungeuropa Verlag,” (Young Europe Publishing House) founded in 2016, which republishes works by far-right actors and historical Nazi material such as “Estonians and Latvians in the Waffen-SS” and “French in the Waffen-SS.” Stein has attended conferences and other events organized by the far right and neo-Nazis. In 2017, he attended a conference hosted by Blocco Studentesco (Student Block), which is the youth organization of the Italian neo-Nazi outfit CasaPound. The conference was also attended by members of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, and the French religious nationalist group Action Française.
Fellow invitee to the European Parliament, Michael Schäfer, has his own history of involvement with neo-Nazis. Schäfer was once a leader in the violent neo-Nazi group Wernigeröder Aktionsfront“ (Wernigerode Action Front, WAF) and reportedly appeared on a membership list of the “European White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” Following the dissolution of WAF in 2005, Schäfer founded the Wernigerode chapter of Junge Nationalisten (Young Nationalists, JN), the youth chapter for the neo-Nazi German political party Die Heimat (Homeland), formerly known as National Democratic Party (NPD). He eventually led JN as federal chairman, until at least 2012. Schäfer, like Stein, has attended events held by CasaPound, such as in 2012, alongside other JN and NPD members.
Michael Schäfer (right) alongside other members of Junge Nationalisten and Gianluca Iannone (center), leader of Italian neo-Nazi party CasaPound in 2012. (Source: lsa-rechtsaussen.net)
Stein and Schäfer’s presentation was rife with accusations of election interference and claims of a “very complex cartel” formed by supposedly “leftist” NGOs and George Soros, a Jewish philanthropist commonly scapegoated as a financier for secret plots meant to undermine white people. The German government was accused of finding “[ways] to influence parliaments” and “intervene in state election campaigns.” Stein and Schäfer accused German progressive NGO Campact of “keep[ing] the AfD small through interference and depriv[ing] them of their seats.” Schäfer suggested that the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, a German NGO combating far-right extremism, targeted eastern German districts to influence election outcomes. They also proposed “training” opportunities to “develop counter-strategies” to these so-called left-wing “cartels” for members of European Parliament. In its blog post describing the presentation, Ein Prozent wrote “our defective democracy is becoming a European problem.”
The recent collaboration between AfD and Ein Prozent could signal the first of many more efforts to share their racist brand of far-right extremism with the rest of Europe. Even more concerning is welcoming white nationalists and neo-Nazis into the European Parliament, thereby mainstreaming their views. These ideas should be disavowed by European MEPs in the strongest terms.
