French right-wing populists cut off cooperation with An alternative for Germany (AfD) in the European Parliament, he writes Nanny Vela.
The leader of the French National Assembly and the main candidate for the European elections, Jordan Bardella, made the decision to no longer sit in the same parliamentary group with AfD, the head of the campaign Alexander Lube told the AFP agency.
Lube thereby confirmed the report of the French newspaper Liberation.
Marine Le Pen and the AfD were part of the increasingly strong Identitarian parliamentary group in the European Parliament, which could soon be joined by Viktor Orbán's Fidesz. There are also the Italian Lega, the Dutch Freedom Party, and the Austrian Libertarians.
According to writing Liberation, the reason for distancing himself from the AfD is the statements of the main candidate of the German party, Maximilian Krach, about the SS.
Krach told the Italian Republic a few days ago: "I will never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform is automatically a criminal."
Guilt must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, said this AfD politician. "Among the 900.000 SS men there were also many farmers. "There was certainly a high percentage of criminals, but not only them," Krach said.
so-called Schutzstaffel or SS for short is responsible for the murder of millions of people in concentration camps during World War II and for numerous other war crimes.
"AfD did not learn anything from the conversation"
After the decision from France to terminate cooperation, the AfD immediately excluded Krach from the leadership of the party and banned him from public appearances.
Krach, who was previously appointed as the list holder for the European elections, has been a problem for the party itself for a long time. Recently, his assistant was arrested on suspicion of being in the European Parliament and Germany spied for China.
The removal of Krach from the sidelines is unlikely to make the French right-wingers change their minds. They already are reacted sharply last year, when the media reported on a secret meeting in Potsdam, Germany, where they talked about "remigration", i.e. the expulsion of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants from Germany.
Some AfD politicians were also present at that right-wing meeting. The party tried to present everything as harmless - its people were there "privately", and apparently there was no talk of anything other than what the AfD publicly advocates, the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.
Even then, Marine Le Pen distanced herself from the AfD and threatened to end cooperation. One of the leaders of the AfD, Alice Weidel, therefore traveled to Paris at the end of February in an attempt to starve relations.
But the head of the election campaign of the Luba National Assembly now said: "We had open discussions, but nothing was learned from them." Now we are making a move."
AfD MPs could be independent
The National Gathering is a major party in the Identity and Democracy group. Excluding the AfD does not require a vote on it. It is sufficient for the presidents of the group's member parties to agree on this.
If they really vote for it, and AfD deputies do not find a new group, this party will be independent in the European Parliament.
According to information from the German newspaper Welt, the Main Committee of the AfD intends to discuss the decision of the French colleagues on Thursday morning.
