MEPs from the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) are making a last-ditch effort to avoid being kicked out of the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy group, according to an internal party letter seen by POLITICO.
AfD MEPs expect the ID group’s executive committee to move to formally exclude the AfD delegation on Friday following remarks by Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s lead candidate in the EU election, who declared that he would “never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal.”
In an effort to avoid that happening, AfD MEPs have now requested that the ID group expel Krah — and not the whole AfD delegation — for “continued violation of the
Group’s cohesion and reputation.”
In a letter to the AfD’s federal executive committee, MEP Christine Anderson argued that members of the ID group do not have a problem with the AfD delegation itself, but rather have a “massive problem” with Krah due to his “personality structure.”
“I am informing you that the majority of the AfD delegation decided today to submit a motion to the ID parliamentary group to expel Dr. Krah from the group,” Anderson wrote. “We see this as the last (albeit desperate!) attempt to prevent the exclusion of the entire AfD delegation from the ID Group.”
The “consequences of not having a parliamentary group (financial damage in the millions!) are probably well known,” Anderson added. “In the hope that you also want to prevent further damage to the AfD, I assume that you will agree with our approach.”
Earlier this week, France’s National Rally, the party of Marine Le Pen, said it wouldn’t sit alongside the AfD party in the next European Parliament due to Krah’s SS remarks and other controversies involving the candidate, including an espionage investigation and allegations of corruption.
In recent months, Le Pen has repeatedly distanced herself from the AfD, which has grown increasingly radical in recent years, in an apparent attempt to help transform her party’s image and make it appear less radical to the French electorate.
Eddy Wax contributed reporting.