On Thursday 23 May, the nine elected members of Germany’s far-right AfD party were expelled from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament following scandals involving an AfD leader, Maximilian Krah.
“The executive committee of the Identity and Democracy Group in Parliament has decided (this Thursday) to exclude the German delegation, AfD, with immediate effect”, said the Italian Lega, because “the ID group no longer wishes to be associated with the incidents involving Maximilian Krah”. The AfD said it had taken note of the ID group’s decision.
Frenchman Jean-Paul Garraud told AFP that the Rassemblement national had urged the exclusion following Mr Krah’s “unacceptable” comments, which, according to Mr Garraud, “in (his) opinion, are binding on the AfD”.
On Tuesday 21, following Mr Krah’s comments explaining that members of the Nazi SS were not necessarily criminals, one of the leaders of the Rassemblement national, Marine Le Pen, announced that her party no longer wished to sit with the AfD (see EUROPE 13414/24).
On Wednesday, the AfD announced that Mr Krah, its head of list for the European elections, had been banned from all election rallies. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)