German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s praise for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as “embarrassing” for the far-right party.

“It is embarrassing that you have received such praise from the Russian president,” the chancellor said in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, after heckling from members of the AfD. “You have worked hard for it, and citizens will know what to make of it,” he added.

Putin on Wednesday said he would “cooperate with all those who want to cooperate with Russia,” including the AfD, which has been hit by a series of scandals linking its top candidates for this week’s European Parliament elections to Moscow.

At a press conference in St Petersburg with major international news agencies, including dpa, Putin said he saw “so signs of neo-Nazism in the actions of the AfD.”

“We don’t see anything that would cause us concern,” he added, responding to a question about the party’s anti-constitutional tendencies.

While Russia and the AfD do not maintain “systemic relations,” Moscow would support anyone in favour of normal ties with Russia, Putin said.

AfD co-leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel have both faced criticism for visits to Russia before Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The AfD recently reached 20% in national polls amid dissatisfaction with Scholz’s three-party coalition, but a new survey suggested its support has dropped below 16% in the final week of the election campaign after a number of controversies.

The state-level AfD party in Germany’s eastern state of Thuringia – as well as in the neighbouring states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt – have been designated as far-right extremist groups.

On a national level, the German opposition party has been classified as suspected right-wing extremist by the domestic intelligence agency.