Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter’s square during the Regina Caeli prayer in The Vatican on May 17, 2026.
STEFANO RELLANDINI / AFP
As the AfD reaches record polling numbers in Germany, the party’s exclusion from major public events is becoming harder to justify.
While the right-wing opposition party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) was once again kept out of the German Catholic Days in Würzburg, Pope Leo XIV received AfD Bundestag member Malte Kaufmann at the Vatican during an audience for parliamentarians from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Kaufmann later published a photograph of the meeting on his X social media account and stated that he had explained to the Pope that the AfD “fights for the family and Christian values” in Germany. According to the AfD politician, Pope Leo was pleased to hear this and thanked him for the explanation.
Während auf dem #Katholikentag in Deutschland die #AfD ausgeschlossen wurde, hat mich heute der Papst im Vatikan im Rahmen einer Audienz der Parlamentarier der OSZE empfangen. Ich habe ihm erklärt, dass die AfD für die Familie und christliche Werte kämpft. Er war froh dies zu… pic.twitter.com/MtCXOOAJNm
— Dr. Malte Kaufmann MdB (@MalteKaufmann) May 15, 2026
The meeting came as the German establishment once again refused to invite AfD representatives to participate in the country’s largest Catholic gathering. The Catholic Days, held from 13 to 17 May in Würzburg, attracted tens of thousands of participants and featured more than 900 events across the city.
This year’s programme placed strong emphasis on climate policy, democracy campaigns, gender issues, and queer-themed discussions, while traditional Christian themes such as repentance, eternal life, and salvation appeared to receive comparatively little attention.
The event highlights the increasingly liberal direction taken by large parts of the German Catholic Church in recent years, often placing it at odds with the Vatican’s position on doctrinal issues.
A few weeks ago, Pope Leo criticised efforts by German bishops to expand formalised blessings for same-sex couples, warning that such measures risked deepening divisions within the global Church.
While the German establishment has embraced LGBT causes, with Bundestag President Julia Klöckner praising the decision to bless homosexual couples, AfD seems to be siding with the Vatican.
German church leaders defended the exclusion of the AfD by arguing that certain AfD positions were incompatible with Christian values. Julia Klöckner stated that there were indeed positions within the party she found difficult to reconcile with the “Christian understanding of humanity.”
In a video recorded in Rome, Kaufmann criticised the exclusion of his party from the Catholic Days, describing it as “a division of society created by the Catholic Church.”
He said the Vatican audience had given him the opportunity to explain “what the AfD really wants,” adding that the party sees itself as a conservative force defending Christianity and family values in Germany.
The controversy comes as support for the AfD continues to rise. An INSA poll published a few days ago placed the party at 29% nationally—the highest level ever recorded for the AfD—putting it ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centre-right bloc, which fell to 22%.
Another survey suggested that around 26% of German Catholics and 27% of Protestants would currently vote for the AfD.
Despite the party’s growing popularity, Germany’s mainstream political and religious institutions continue to refuse cooperation with it, alienating millions of voters and deepening political divisions across the country.
Zoltán Kottász is a journalist for europeanconservative.com, based in Budapest. He worked for many years as a journalist and as the editor of the foreign desk at the Hungarian daily, Magyar Nemzet. He focuses primarily on European politics.
