France’s Marine Le Pen dumps German far-right AfD party after Nazi comments: ‘it’s enough’

AfD’s lead candidate in next month’s European elections was quoted last week as saying not all members of the Nazi SS paramilitary group were criminals

Le Pen’s move could be first step to realignment of far-right parties in the EU legislature that are currently divided

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French far-right National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen gives a speech during the Spanish far-right wing party Vox’s rally in Madrid on Sunday. Photo: AP

Published: 5:11pm, 22 May 2024

French far-right politician Marine Le Pen said her party will end cooperation with the Alternative for Germany in the next European parliament following comments by an AfD lawmaker that appeared to play down the crimes of the Nazis.

The AfD’s lead candidate in next month’s European elections, Maximilian Krah, was quoted last week by Italian newspaper la Repubblica as saying that not all members of the Nazi SS paramilitary organisation were criminals. Krah was already under pressure after his assistant in the EU parliament was detained last month suspected of spying for China.

AfD’s Maximilian Krah will leave the party’s federal steering committee. The party has also banned him from appearing at EU election campaign events. Photo: dpa

“It’s enough – AfD is going from one provocation to another,” Le Pen, who heads France’s National Rally, or RN, said on Wednesday on Europe 1 radio. “It’s time to make a clean break with this movement, which has no leadership and is clearly under the sway of radical groups within it.”

AfD on Wednesday banned Krah from appearing at EU election campaign events, after Le Pen’s party announced the split.

After a crisis meeting with the AfD’s top brass, Krah said he will also leave the party’s federal steering committee.

Le Pen’s move could be a first step toward a realignment of far-right parties represented in the EU legislature. They are currently divided into two groups, hampering them from securing key posts in the bloc’s administration.

The European Conservatives and Reformists group, or ECR, includes the parties of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and France’s Eric Zemmour, while Le Pen’s party and the AfD belong to Identity and Democracy, or ID.