As the history of the European Union shows, over the decades France and Germany —the two largest countries and economies — were the motors of integration of the twenty-seven EU member countries and their combined population of 450 million. As the results of the June 2024 European Parliament elections show, France and Germany as the largest EU democracies are threatened as never before by the growth of far-right par ties promising to disempower or even abolish the European Union. Thus, what happens in France with respect to keeping the far-right there in check is important to Germany’s challenge of coping with a far-right party like the Alternative für Deutschland, especially in its eastern states.
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