Credits: Debout la France, CC BY-SA 2.0.
On September 8, 2026, RN lawmaker for the Somme Jean-Philippe Tanguy spoke on BFMTV-RMC about a meeting at the European Parliament. He places it before the 2019 European elections. No document or second testimony corroborates this episode, in which Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is said to have taken part. This late account comes after the AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt. It invites readers to compare a warning presented as long-standing with the public break between the RN and the German party in May 2024.
What Jean-Philippe Tanguy Says He Experienced
Two days after the regional election in Saxony-Anhalt, Jean-Philippe Tanguy was interviewed on BFMTV-RMC’s Face-à-Face. He first expressed his shock at Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) score. The National Rally lawmaker then brought up a much earlier episode. He describes a meeting at the European Parliament, before the May 26, 2019 vote.
At that time, Tanguy was still with Debout la France. According to his account, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan accompanied him. AfD members, whom he did not name, allegedly received them in an office. He says he “came out of there terrified.” He adds that Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and he supposedly asked themselves: “these people are unbelievable.”
The sequence establishes that Jean-Philippe Tanguy made these remarks on September 8, 2026. By itself, it does not establish the circumstances of the meeting he describes. The lawmaker gives no exact date, no city—Brussels or Strasbourg—or agenda. He also does not report the words or behavior that would have caused this fear.
A 2019-Preceding Meeting Still Without Corroboration
The sources reviewed all converge on the same point of origin: the interview broadcast by BFMTV and RMC. Retellings of the segment therefore do not amount to independent confirmation. No calendar, email, European Parliament report, or separate witness is provided to document the meeting.
This lack of a public record does not prove the meeting never took place. But it does prevent the identities of the German interlocutors, the content of the exchange, or the reason for the alleged unease from being presented as established facts. Even the exact location remains unknown, since the European Parliament works in both Brussels and Strasbourg.
The sources consulted also contain no reaction from Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the RN, or the AfD about this specific episode. As it stands, the rigorous formulation is therefore the testimony itself: Tanguy says he took part in this meeting and says he came away frightened.
In the same interview, the lawmaker recounts a decision made quickly after he joined the RN. According to him, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella wanted to break with the AfD. He cites increasingly questionable statements about World War II. No element presented in the segment dates this internal decision. The public break, however, is documented five years after the 2019 European elections.
May 2024: The Documented Moment of the Break
From 2019 on, RN and AfD elected officials sat in the same European group, Identity and Democracy. On May 21, 2024, RN campaign director Alexandre Loubet announced Jordan Bardella’s decision. He no longer wanted to sit with the AfD after the June European elections.
The immediate trigger was an interview with Maximilian Krah, then the AfD’s lead candidate, in the Italian daily La Repubblica. He argued that belonging to the SS did not automatically make someone a criminal. The SS formed a central organization in the Nazi regime’s machinery of repression and extermination. The RN then considered that the explanations it had already requested from its German partner had gone unanswered.
The public decision therefore came about five years after the meeting Tanguy describes. This gap does not prove that the lawmaker had not felt or expressed reservations earlier. It simply shows that the available elements do not allow a personal impression presented as long-standing to be turned into an institutional break as early as 2019.
Since the 2024 European elections, the split is reflected in the make-up of the chamber. RN lawmakers sit with Patriots for Europe. AfD members belong to the Europe of Sovereign Nations group. European Parliament lists confirm this current setup. They do not shed light on the internal exchanges that may have preceded the break.
The AfD’s Victory In Saxony-Anhalt, The Trigger For The Story
The question put to Jean-Philippe Tanguy followed the regional vote of September 6, 2026. The official preliminary results for the state give the AfD 43.8% of the second votes. The party is ahead of the CDU, credited with 17.2%. The German far right thus comes in very clearly first in this eastern region of the country.
In a second excerpt from the interview, the RN lawmaker says he is shocked and outraged. He criticizes AfD officials for downplaying Germany’s Nazi past. His criticism targets positions taken by party leaders. It does not make it possible to attribute the same remarks to all of its members or voters.
Tanguy also offers an economic explanation for the vote, referring to voters who struggle to pay their electricity bills. This interpretation is presented without supporting data in the excerpt aired. It should therefore remain attributed to the lawmaker, and not be repeated as a proven analysis of voting motivations in Saxony-Anhalt.
The AfD’s regional success does not in any way confirm the earlier pre-2019 meeting. It does, however, explain why past ties between the two parties are coming back into the French debate. Its former German ally has posted a historic result. The RN then reasserts the political and parliamentary distance that has separated them since 2024.
Three Dates And Two Levels Of Proof
The strongest chronology rests on three markers. Before May 26, 2019 lies a meeting for which Jean-Philippe Tanguy today provides the only available account. May 21, 2024 corresponds to the verifiable announcement of the RN’s break with the AfD. Finally, the AfD wins the regional election on September 6, 2026. Tanguy gives his first identified public statement about the earlier meeting two days later.
Two levels of proof must remain separate. It is certain that the lawmaker made this testimony on air. It remains impossible to verify the material reality of the meeting. Neither the list of participants nor the words spoken are established. Presenting the episode as settled would amount to confusing a recorded statement with the fact it describes.
This distinction also prevents writing that the RN broke with the AfD as early as 2019. The two parties continued to share a group in the European Parliament. Their public separation did not occur until May 2024. An earlier private distancing remains possible, but it is not documented by the available sources.
A date, an agenda, or the identity of the AfD representatives present would change the status of this account. A confirmation from Nicolas Dupont-Aignan would too. Until those elements are available, Jean-Philippe Tanguy’s account mainly sheds light on the RN’s current narrative about its distance from the AfD. On its own, it does not rewrite the verifiable timeline of their split.