A leader of the scandal-plagued far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) lashed out at similar European parties on Saturday after the AfD was expelled from the European Parliament group.
Ahead of next month’s EU-wide elections, the AfD was this week expelled from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, an alliance of populist right-wing parties in parliament.
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla lashed out at France’s far-right party Marine Le Pen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He said he would not allow them to influence AfD policy.
Le Pen’s National Rally is a member of the ID group. The party quickly began to distance itself from the AfD after Maximilian Krah, an AfD candidate for the European Parliament, said that not all members of the SS were criminals.
The Schutzstaffel (SS) was an important paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Krah’s Nazi comments were published in the Italian media earlier this month.
Chrupalla characterized Meloni, one of the most powerful figures of the far right in Europe, as a moderate who is pushing the Brussels agenda. He claimed that since taking office in 2022, Meloni has been in favor of increased migration and sending weapons to Ukraine.
“This melonization will not happen to us,” Chrupalla said at an AfD party conference in the eastern city of Glauchau.
The AfD will not bend to become more respectable to others, he said: “For us, German interests always come first.”
Apart from the SS comments, Krah’s ties to Russia have come to media attention and his former aide was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China.
