Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida is facing backlash after announcing plans to host members of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in Washington next month.
“Rep. Luna’s decision to roll out the red carpet for members of a far-right, Holocaust revisionist, Putin-loving party is grotesque,” said Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, a co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.
Luna posted on X late last month that she had met in D.C. with Anna Rathert, a member of Germany’s Bundestag and part of the AfD’s parliamentary group. “I look forward to hosting you all in DC in December!” Luna wrote. A few days earlier, in a separate post, she had invited AfD co-leader Alice Weidel to Washington to meet with members of Congress. Weidel replied that she would contact Luna to “make it happen.”
Luna’s office has not released a schedule for the visit and did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But her meeting with Rathert wasn’t her first interaction with AfD-linked figures. Luna recently backed Naomi Seibt, a far-right German influencer, in her U.S. asylum bid and said she would personally raise her case with the State Department.
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Luna has described her outreach as a discussion about “freedom and democracy.” Her critics see it as a symbolic embrace of Europe’s nationalist far right at a time of rising antisemitism and growing Russian influence.
The AfD is monitored by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as a suspected extremist group. Its leaders have minimized the Holocaust, criticized NATO, opposed support for Ukraine and Israel, and maintained close ties with the Kremlin.
The American Jewish Committee describes the AfD as a “right-wing extremist party” and says it has “a clear record of antisemitism and hostility to America.”
Luna, a first-term Republican from Florida and former member of the House Freedom Caucus, emerged from the influencer wing of conservative politics via Turning Point USA and leveraged a large online following into a House seat. She has built her brand around populist nationalism, often casting right-wing movements abroad as allies in what she calls a defense of Western values.
Luna has also courted ties with Russian officials. She announced plans to meet with Kirill Dmitriev, President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, in early October, and later accepted a 350-page archive of Russian government findings on the Kennedy assassination from Russia’s ambassador, which she went on to publish.
Democrats say the timing makes the move even more alarming. The invitation came just days before Der Spiegel revealed that German officials suspect AfD members of probing military and cyber defenses on behalf of the Kremlin.
“At a time where antisemitism is at historical levels in this country, Anna Paulina Luna inviting representatives of a party that has invoked Nazi-slogans and imagery to Congress is nothing short of revolting,” Madison Andrus, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told NOTUS.
“Members of the AfD have met with avowed neo-Nazis, attempted to minimize the Holocaust, and stoked political violence. Florida is home to the second largest Jewish population in the country, and Luna inviting the AfD into the halls of Congress is a betrayal of those communities.”
Rick Stark, a former Democratic representative from Florida and president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus, called the outreach “a disturbing trend among the newer generation of conservative GOP legislators.” He said that “unless Rep. Luna calls out the AfD for its antisemitic rhetoric, she loses credibility as a politician to be taken seriously.”
Few Republicans have commented so far. The office of Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican co-chair of the Congressional Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, did not respond to a request for comment. NOTUS also reached out to several other House Republicans but did not hear back. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told NOTUS, “I try to avoid domestic politics involving other countries.”
Luna’s outreach comes amid a broader thaw between Trump-aligned Republicans and Germany’s far-right AfD.
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla and several party members attended Trump’s inauguration in January.
In February, Vice President JD Vance met with Weidel during a trip to Europe. Germany’s government publicly criticized the meeting and warned U.S. officials not to interfere in its politics.
In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned Germany’s decision to classify the AfD as a right-wing extremist organization, calling it “tyranny in disguise.”
In September, Beatrix von Storch, the AfD’s deputy leader, met at the White House with officials from the National Security Council, the State Department and Vance’s office.
Lawmakers may meet with foreign officials, but official diplomacy remains under the authority of the executive branch, according to the Congressional Research Service. There is no indication that the White House or State Department had any role in Luna’s invitation to AfD members.
The AfD has become increasingly isolated in Germany. Its leaders have called Berlin’s Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame” and described Nazi crimes as a “bird shit in over a thousand years of German history.”
Goldman called Luna’s actions “all the more disturbing given her own grandfather’s apparent Nazi past.” Luna’s paternal grandfather served in the German Wehrmacht during World War II, according to The Washington Post. Luna has not publicly discussed her grandfather’s service.
“There’s no gray area here,” Goldman said. “Every member of Congress, especially our Republican colleagues, must call out this dangerous laundering of Kremlin talking points and make clear that antisemitism and hate have no place in our politics or our diplomacy.”
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