A far-right group in the European Union parliament announced on Thursday that it was expelling the Alternative for Germany party from its governing coalition, dealing a heavy blow to the key alliance just two weeks before EU parliamentary elections.
In a statement On its official X accountThe Identity and Democracy Group wrote that it decided to exclude the Alternative for Germany (AfD) due to statements made by Maximilian Krah, the party’s leading candidate in the upcoming elections.
In an interview last week, Krach appeared to downplay the crimes committed by the SS, the paramilitary force that killed millions during the Holocaust. “There were a million soldiers wearing SS uniforms,” Krach told Republik. Joint interview with the Financial Times“Can you say someone is a criminal just because he was a Waffen-SS officer? You have to establish individual guilt.”
The Identity and Democracy group said in a statement that it “no longer wishes to have anything to do with the events surrounding Maximilian Krach, head of the Alternative for Germany list in the European elections”.
The party includes the Italian League and the French National Rally, while the Alternative for Germany has been excluded from it, indicating that the party’s domestic problems are beginning to spread to EU politics.
The fact that the Identity and Democracy Union moved to oust the AfD before the election suggests that other far-right parties in Europe fear that the German delegation has become a liability. 400 million voters Eligible to elect 705 members of the European Parliament. Far-right parties are expected to Won a record number of votes.
Jordan Bardella, president of the National League, responded quickly to Krach’s comments, saying French TF1 The AfD had “crossed a red line” and vowed his party “will no longer stand with the AfD”.
Krach, who has been at the center of several scandals in Germany recently, said this week he would quit the AfD leadership committee after the party held an emergency meeting. He will also stop campaigning.
“It means a significant loss of power,” Hajo Funke, an analyst who specializes in Germany’s far right, said of the AfD’s ouster. “Without the organization, the AfD will be even more isolated than it is now.”
Krach’s interview is one of the latest blows for the AfD party, which has taken to the streets in the hundreds of thousands in Germany after an investigation uncovered secret meetings between party leaders and far-right extremists in January during which they discussed organizing mass deportations.
Last month, one of Mr. Kra’s associates was arrested on suspicion of being an agent for the Chinese government. Although Mr. Kra has not been charged, authorities searched his office, fueling speculation that he, too, could be under investigation.
this month, The police searched the office Petr Bystron, the second AfD member to enter the EU elections, is under investigation for accepting Russian money. Like Mr. Kra, Mr. Bystron has withdrawn from the campaign.
Both are expected to win seats in the European Parliament next month, but unless they can form their own coalition their powers will be greatly diminished.
