A break had been apparent for some time – now France’s right-wing populists are getting serious: they no longer want to sit in a parliamentary group with the AfD in the EU Parliament. The reason is statements made by AfD top candidate Krah about the SS.
France’s right-wing populists are terminating their cooperation with the AfD in the European Parliament. The head of the Rassemblement National (RN) party and top candidate for the European elections, Jordan Bardella, has made the decision to no longer sit in parliament with the AfD, campaign manager Alexandre Loubet told the AFP news agency. Loubet thereby confirmed a report in the French newspaper Libération.
According to the report, statements by the AfD’s top candidate Maximilian Krah about the Waffen-SS are the reason for this. A few days ago, Krah told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: “I will never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal.” According to the AfD politician, guilt must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. “Among the 900,000 SS men there were also many farmers: there was certainly a high percentage of criminals, but not only.”
The so-called Schutzstaffel, or SS for short, was responsible for the murder of millions of people in concentration camps during World War II and for numerous other war crimes.
Loubet: AfD didn’t learn from conversations
Until now, AfD and Rassemblement National belong to the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament. Recently, however, rifts have become apparent: after the secret meeting on “remigration” in Potsdam, the French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen clearly distanced herself from the AfD on behalf of her RN and threatened to end their cooperation.
Even a visit by AfD leader Alice Weidel to Paris at the end of February did not appease the French right-wing populists. Campaign manager Loubet said: “We had open discussions, but nothing was learned from them. Now we are drawing the conclusions.”
AfD MPs could be non-attached
The RN is the largest party in the ID. No vote is necessary to exclude the AfD. It is enough if the chairmen of the member parties agree on this. If they actually vote for it and the AfD MPs do not find a new group, it would be non-attached in the EU Parliament.
According to information from “Welt”, the AfD federal executive board wants to discuss the RN’s announcement tomorrow morning.