The German MEP Maximilian Krah, head of the list for the European elections of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), left the leadership of the party this Wednesday after his statements to the Italian press about the Nazi SS led to the French Marine Le Pen and the Italian Matteo Salvini to break relations with the AfD.
Krah notified himself on social networks, and also that he will not appear at campaign events for the European elections on June 9, for which he continues to be the head of the list for the moment. His party has ordered him to do so, fearing that it will harm his electoral chances.
Maximilian Krah, a 47-year-old jurist, declared to the newspaper La Repubblica, in reference to the Nazi paramilitary organization SS (Schutzstaffel), at the service of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party and the practical execution of the Holocaust of the Jews: “I will never say that anyone who had an SS uniform was automatically a criminal.”
These statements impacted not only his coreligionists in France and Italy, but also the party itself in Germany, which was on the rise in the polls, but which has suffered from other recent scandals, such as Chinese espionage. Now the polls place the AfD at around 15%, fighting for second place with the Greens (also at 15%), and with the conservative CDU/CSU in the lead with 31%.
The ultra Krah was already in serious trouble since his assistant Jian Guo, of German nationality and Chinese origin, was arrested in April, accused of spying for China. Krah distanced himself and fired him after the arrest, but Krah himself had made conciliatory statements with Beijing, and Czech Republic intelligence has linked him to the pro-Russian portal Voice of Europe.
