The Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the EU Parliament does not want to accept the AfD back into its parliamentary delegation for the time being, despite the exclusion of Maximilian Krah. The spokesman for AfD co-leader Alice Weidel confirmed a corresponding report in the magazine “Politico” on Thursday. The head of the French Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen, and other representatives of the right-wing nationalist ID group made this decision at a meeting in Brussels.
After Krah’s widely criticized comments on the Nazi SS, the ID group in the European Parliament excluded the AfD group at the instigation of Marine Le Pen shortly before the European elections. On Monday after the election, in which she received 15.9 percent, the newly elected AfD MPs decided by a majority not to include Krah in their delegation – in the hope of being readmitted. However, to distance herself from the AfD, Le Pen had already “remigrated” after the Potsdam meeting.
Krah described his committee as a mistake and predicted that it would not change the ID’s mind. The AfD should not allow a foreign party to dictate who it will run with, said Krah.
The decision was apparently made at a meeting in Brussels between the French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen and the Italian Lega leader Matteo Salvini and other politicians from the ID faction. The aim was to create the broadest possible center-right alliance. The Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders and the head of the Austrian FPÖ, Herbert Kickl, are also said to have attended. The meeting was held behind closed doors.
According to his Lega party, Salvini hopes for the broadest possible alliance of right-wing parties “without socialists and eco-extremists”. According to preliminary election results, the ID group has 58 seats, nine more than last time.
To form a broad right-wing alliance, Le Pen and Salvini would have to join forces with at least the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. This group includes, among others, the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which, like Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), triumphed in the European elections.
