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Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Italy’s Future Nazionale have formally joined forces, with senior figures from the two parties calling for greater cooperation among Europe’s nationalist and right-wing political movements.

Roberto Vannacci, leader of Future Nazionale, introduced AfD politician Marc Jongen at a rally in the central Italian city of Orvieto on Sunday.

“‘Alarm! Alarming!’ they all said, but as you can see he doesn’t have a shaved head or tattoos... He is a distinguished professor of philosophy with a great career,” Vannacci said while introducing Jongen.

The appearance marked a high-profile public meeting between senior figures from the two parties following the AfD’s recent electoral gains in Germany.

Jongen, who was born in Italy and grew up in German-speaking South Tyrol, told the crowd that Italian was his second language. He said the two political movements would eventually be able to “greet each other through our respective governments.”

“Italy and Germany must learn to walk side by side without melting into an anonymous entity of the EU,” Jongen said.

“There is a European Right that extends beyond state borders ... and we are proud to unite with Vannacci.”

Jongen, a German citizen since 2011, previously worked as an academic at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.

The meeting came two weeks after youth representatives from the German and Italian right-wing parties exchanged visits, highlighting increased contacts between the two political movements.

Vannacci, a retired general who has described his political platform as the “social Right,” told The Telegraph that Future Nazionale was closely following the AfD’s recent electoral rise and was “consulting with one another to take advantage of this success for Future Nazionale and the future of Italy.”

In his closing remarks, Vannacci said he expected Russia to win the war in Ukraine and said he would oppose any proposed legislation against antisemitism.

He also called for the rollback of incentives for renewable energy and advocated a ban on surrogacy, which he said “reduced women to mere pizza ovens.”

Vannacci further called for a return to what he described as the Mediterranean patriarchy portrayed by Ulysses in Homer’s The Odyssey.

The meeting comes as right-wing and nationalist parties across Europe seek to strengthen cross-border cooperation while maintaining their respective national political identities.