European Right Exterminates Germany’s AfD
While there are 705 politicians, well over 100 different political parties, and a 60/40 split disadvantaging women in the European Parliament (EP), there are just seven political groups in the EP. One of these groups is the deceptively labelled “Identity and Democracy”.
Behind the seemingly innocent looking group “Identity and Democracy” isn’t about democracy at all but the neofascist right-wing parliamentarian squadron of Europe’s right-wing extremists. This group, until recently, included Germany’s neofascist AfD. But since 23rd of May 2024, the AfD delegates in the EP are no longer part of the EU’s far-right parliamentary group. The group voted in favour of expelling them.
Amidst several scandals, the far-right group Identity and Democracy (ID) has excluded all members of Germany’s AfD. Even for the otherwise extremely right-wing parties of Europe, the AfD became too much of a political liability when facing the June European elections.
On the expulsion of the AfD, the far-right parliamentary group’s office simply stated, “the exclusion of the German delegation is with immediate effect”.
It further noted that “the ID group no longer wants to be associated with the incidents surrounding Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s leading candidate for the European elections” – the so-called “incidents” where, among others, included the glorification of Hitler’s SS killer platoon.
Outspoken neo-Nazi Krah is under severe criticism for trivializing Hitler’s murderous killing squad, the SS – the organization that once ran concentration camps killing up to 10 million people, including 6 million Jewish people, prisoners of war, mentally ill, gay people – the list is endless. Expectedly, the AfD resents and rejects the decision of the ID to exclude them.
There are eight different national delegations in the ID group. Only the respective heads of these eight delegations were entitled to vote on the exclusion of the AfD.
While two voted against the expulsion of the AfD (Austria’s and Estonia’s far-right parties), five of the seven national far-right political parties that make up the EP’s ID group, voted in favour of the AfD’s exclusion. It was the necessary minimum needed to eliminate the AfD. These five that voted to eradicate the AfD were:
- the Lega of Italy – Meloni and Salvini, etc,
- the French National rally of Marine Le Pen,
- the Flemish Vlaams Belang,
- the Danish People’s Party, and
- the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy Party.
Meanwhile, the AfD delegation considers the five “yes” votes to be incorrect. From the AfD’s twisted point of view, the Czech Republic’s vote was invalid. For the AfD, the Czech delegation’s leadership was wrong to formulate its own statement on the exclusion. As for the AfD, the delegation should have just voted with either a “yes” or “no”. In order to arrive at the needed fifth delegation, the vote of the Czech delegation, which is to be judged as invalid in the mind of the AfD was simply added to the four others. This is what the AfD claims.
In addition, the AfD also resented the Danish deputies. The AfD says, that their delegation had not expressed itself in the vote. According to ID’s neofascist rule book, silence is counted as a “yes” vote!
At the same time, the AfD’s sister outfit, the Austrian FPÖ as well as an Estonian right-wing party voted against the exclusion of the AfD. The German AfD stooges from Austria and Estonia were thanked for their camaraderie by the AfD saying thanks in “a difficult hour”.
According to some, a rather controversial decision was reached among the heads of far-right delegations to exclude all AfD delegates because of – Krah’s one so-called “behaviour”.
Yet, the decision to eliminate the AfD came without there being any “personal” misconduct on the part of Germany’s AfD or Krah’s. Glorifying Hitler’s SS is not a “personal misconduct” in the eyes of Europe’s right-wing extremists.
As expected, the AfD remains confident about the upcoming election despite its exclusion. The AfD’s German Führers do not assume that the party will be isolated after the European elections. At the beginning of June 2024, the AfD was sitting at 16% to 18% of public support in Germany.
Yet, the AfD “Nazi bitch” Alice Weidel and her simple-minded off-sider Tino Chrupalla said, “we have taken note of the decision of the ID group”. Despite the decision to excommunicate the AfD, the AfD’s upper apparatchiks remain optimistic about the outcome of the EP election.
Simultaneously and despite its exclusion, AfD apparatchiks believe that to have an ideological impact in Brussels – the location of the EP – cooperation with parties sharing the AfD’s inhuman ideology remains essential.
Despite its dismissal, the AfD continues to be confident that the AfD will have reliable far-right partners at their side in the new legislative period of the European parliament. The AfD is convinced that their exclusion has, above all, more of a symbolic effect. The party reasons that there will be no financial effects either.
Searching for political associates after the European elections will also include strategic alliances for the formation of a political faction inside the EP. After the exclusion of the AfD, this will be very difficult for the AfD. To camouflage their numerous scandals, AfD delegation – originally – just wanted to exclude their top-candidate Krah.
Originally, stripping the AfD of membership in the far-right group had been requested by the Italian outfit of the ID faction. This can be ascertained from documents that were sent to the top representatives of all ID member parties. These are available online.
The reason for the elimination of the AfD was that Krah and – in a broader sense – the entire German AfD delegations of the parliamentary groups were involved in several so-called “incidents”.
These indignities had damaged the cohesion, reputation, carefully crafted propaganda image of the far-right group, and the electoral prospects of the far-right.
Yet, the AfD’s EP cohort had previously tried to avert the decision about the expulsion demanding that only the AfD top candidate – Maximilian Krah – is to be excluded.
The AfD argued against other right-wing extremists that Krah’s “behaviour” (read: glorifying the SS) would not justify the exclusion of “all” AfD deputies.
The motion to only exclude the Tiktok-star Krah from the ID was supported by seven of the nine AfD MEPs. Yet, the master-ideologue Krah’s statements on the SS caused plenty of condemnation.
According to the BBC, “the latest controversy comes after the – Alternative for Germany – AfD’s Maximilian Krah told journalists that SS members weren’t automatically criminals”. On the world’s most inhumane, murderous, and outright criminal organization, AfD mini-neo-Nazi Krah had this to say,
„Ich werde nie sagen, dass jeder, der eine SS-Uniform trägt, automatisch ein Verbrecher ist.“
“I will never say that anyone who wears an SS uniform is automatically a criminal.“
Because of this – and more – AfD apparatchiks decided, mostly for tactical-electoral reasons, that the AfD’s Krah will no longer “officially” appear in the European election campaign and is resigning from his job on the AfD’s federal executive board.
The reason wasn’t only Krah’s recent pro-SS statement in Italy’s la Repubblica newspaper, but also for receiving hush money from Russia, employing a now arrested spy, and lobbying for China.
After la Repubblica’s pro-SS statement, France’s Rassemblement National announced that it would no longer work with the AfD in the European Parliament.
This is specifically about Krah’s pro-SS interview in the Italian newspaper la Repubblica. It was published on the 18th of May 2024.
While Krah advocates that the SS wasn’t a criminal organisation, Hitler’s SS guarded and administered concentration camps and was responsible for war crimes. The SS used torture, mass shootings, and many other brutalities. At the Nuremberg Trials after the end of Germany’s Second World War, the SS was declared a “criminal organization”.
Despite all this, there was also the arrest of a Krah employee on suspicion of espionage. Because of this, AfD Führers decided that Krah will be banned from appearing at the “official” campaign launch of the AfD in Donaueschingen in Baden-Württemberg.
Next to glorifying the SS, other reasons for the ban of pro-SS-Krah during the election in Germany was the arrest of his employee in his Brussels’ office on suspicion of spying for China. The employee was put in state custody. In addition to all that, the public prosecutor’s office is currently conducting investigations against Krah himself. Yet, by mid-May 2024, Krah was back onto the AfD’s regular election campaign.
This occurred even though – or perhaps “because of the fact that” – Krah has been notorious within the AfD for his racist, ultra-nationalistic, dehumanising, misanthropic and misogynistic statements.
Maybe because of this, the AfD elected him as the leading candidate for the European elections at a party congress in Magdeburg in July 2023.
This was long before the AfD’s leading candidate Maximilian Krah belittled Nazism – after all, Krah’s own grandfather was a HJ-doctor and an active Nazi with membership number: 5-557-685.
Meanwhile, the head of the conservative EP group “EPP” has called on Krah to give up his mandate in Brussels and Strasbourg in the new and upcoming legislative period.
For Europe’s more moderate conservatives, Krah’s decision for not giving up his place on the list for the election in June is “downright ridiculous”. Europe’s conservatives have warned against the election of the AfD.
Meanwhile, the Green Party’s Ricarda Lang has called on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) to rule out cooperation with the far-right. She said,
“I expect Ursula von der Leyen to take a very clear position before the election and make clear:
there will be no coalition with right-wing extremists in the European Parliament”.
Even far-right Le Pen no longer wants to cooperate with AfD as the AfD seems to be a bit too “openly far-right” – perhaps it is a bit like Marine Le Pen’s Waffen-SS association that is now played down.
Yet, one should not be too naïve and see that Marine Le Pen is taking advantage of the predicaments of Germany’s AfD to give herself a moderate-bourgeois image within France. This merely disguises the far-right core of her own party.
Whatever the case, there are strong right-wing authoritarian forces in the EU parliament. Yet, there is also a fragmentation of the ultra-right forces within the EU.
For the right-wing extremist and authoritarian squad in the EU Parliament, the exclusion of the AfD could also be a step towards more consolidation of Europe’s hard right.
A merger of the right–wing authoritarian forces – with or without Germany’s neofascist AfD –also seems to be a real possibility. Italy’s Meloni wants to “unite” Europe’s right-wing parties.
Perhaps after the much wanted death of Euro-Communism, Europe might get Euro-Fascism.
Born on the foothills of Castle Frankenstein, Thomas Klikauer (PhD) is the author of 985 publications, including a book on “The AfD”.
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