The controversial AfD candidate for the European elections resigns from the leadership of the ultra party and will leave the campaign

The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is trying to distance itself from the scandal surrounding its main candidate in June’s European elections, Maximiliam Krah, after the politician’s controversial statements about the Nazi SS led to Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini to announce on Tuesday a break in relations with his party.

The reaction was not long in coming. The AfD’s main candidate for the European elections presented his resignation from the federal executive committee of his party on Wednesday. He has decided that Krah will also withdraw from the electoral campaign during the weeks remaining until the European elections. The decision was made at an extraordinary meeting of the leadership held early on Wednesday.

“I recognize that nuanced and fact-based statements on my part are being abused as a pretext to harm our party. The last thing we need right now is a debate about me. AfD must maintain its unity. For this reason, I will refrain from making further campaign appearances with immediate effect and will resign as a member of the Federal Executive Committee,” Krah wrote on the social network

The right-wing nationalist party National Rally (RN), led by Marine Le Pen, announced that it no longer wants to work in a parliamentary group with the AfD in the European Parliament in the future due to Krah’s controversial statements. However, the AfD leadership would like to continue its cooperation with the RN, according to party circles seen by German public broadcaster ZDF.

In statements to the Italian newspaper The Republic, Krah had stated: “I will never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal.” “Guilt must be assessed on a case-by-case basis,” he continued, “at the end of the war there were almost a million SS. Even [el Nobel de literatura de ideología socialdemócrata] Günter Grass belonged to the Waffen-SS.

The leader of the Italian League, Matteo Salvini, agreed with Le Pen’s decision and also distanced himself from the AfD. “As always, Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen are in complete agreement on this point,” the League noted, according to the Ansa news agency. That move means the AfD will lose two of its most powerful partners in the EU Parliament and is likely on the brink of collapse in the European parliamentary group Identity and Democracy (ID). If you lose your group status, you will also lose funding and speaking time in the European Parliament.

It is not the first time that Krah has attracted public attention. The politician has been in the news repeatedly in recent weeks for various scandals. One of his advisors in the European Parliament was detained by German security authorities accused of Chinese espionage. Krah himself is suspected of having received covert money in the matter. He is also accused of playing a role in the case surrounding the pro-Russian propaganda outlet Voice of Europe, considered a tool of Russia to influence Europe and endanger the territorial integrity, sovereignty and freedom of Ukraine. Krah gave several interviews to the disinformation platform and is well connected to those who pull the strings of the network.

This scandal is just one more in the long list of the AfD, which has been trying for weeks to deal with numerous cases against it. His second candidate on the list for the Europeans, Petr Bystron, is not in a much more comfortable situation than Krah. The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the deputy for suspicions of bribery and money laundering in connection with the case of Voice of Europe. The German Parliament decided last Thursday to lift the deputy’s immunity so that the German authorities could search his offices and homes. The party asked him on Friday that he refrain from making any further appearances in the remainder of the campaign until everything is clarified.

Despite these problems, AfD continues to have very high support in the European elections, around 15% of the votes, tied with the Greens and behind the Christian Democrats (31%), according to the latest poll carried out by public television. German ZDF.

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