LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives will reinforce their ties with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats after failing to stop the anti-euro AfD party joining its bloc in the European Parliament.
A conservative alliance in the European Parliament led by Cameron's party voted to admit AfD into its bloc on Thursday, a move that threatens to strain relations between the British leader and Merkel, who regards the AfD as her political foes.
Cameron needs Merkel, Europe's most powerful politician, to help him win backing for European Union reform and has been trying, so far without success, to get her to stop Jean-Claude Juncker from becoming the next European Commission president.
One person familiar with Cameron's thinking told Reuters the British leader had made it clear to Merkel before the vote he was opposed to the AfD entering the same political bloc and that his party did everything it could to try to stop it happening.
"The Conservatives will now be making an effort to reinforce their ties with their sister party in Germany," the person said, saying "the overwhelming majority" of Conservative lawmakers in the European Parliament had voted against AfD.
Only "a couple" had voted in favour, the person added.
Separately, a Conservative spokesman said Cameron's party was "very disappointed" by the outcome of the vote.
"We were clear all along we did not want this to happen. The CDU-CSU remains our sister party," the spokesman said.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn and Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Andrew Osborn)