After SS statements

France’s right-wing ends cooperation with the AfD

Marine Le Pen finds the AfD's policies too radical. Her party is ending its cooperation with the Germans.(Bild: APA/AFP/STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)

France's right-wing populist Rassemblement National is making good on its threats and ending its cooperation with the German AfD. They have "made the decision" to no longer "sit in parliament" with the AfD, said EU campaign leader Alexandre Loubet on Tuesday. This was prompted by statements on the SS from the ranks of the AfD. 

The AfD's leading candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, told the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" at the weekend that not every SS man was a criminal. According to the AfD politician, guilt must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. In France, the statements were seen as a trivialization of the Nazi era. 

Maximilian Krah(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

Until now, the AfD, the Rassemblement National (National Rally Movement, RN) and the FPÖ have belonged to the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament. However, massive rifts have become apparent since November at the latest: French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen clearly distanced herself from the AfD on behalf of her RN after the Potsdam secret meeting on "remigration" and threatened to end the cooperation. 

"We are drawing the consequences"
Even a visit by AfD leader Alice Weidel to Paris at the end of February did not appease the French right-wing populists. Campaign manager Loubet now said with regard to the AfD: "We had open discussions, but nothing was learned from them. Now we are drawing the consequences." 

Marine Le Pen finds the AfD's policies too radical. Her party is ending its cooperation with the Germans.(Bild: APA/AFP/STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)

Le Pen has been courting conservative voters for years and has committed her party, the former Front National, to a course of "demonization". The 55-year-old even fell out with her father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, whom she expelled from the party for persistently denying the Holocaust. She is no longer at the head of the party. 

Le Pen moves closer to Italy's Meloni
It remains to be seen what the future holds for the far-right camp in the European Parliament. Le Pen has repeatedly appeared alongside Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni, who heads the ultra-right Fratelli d'Italia (FdI). Meloni's party belongs to the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the European Parliament. The far-right Spanish party Vox and the national conservative PiS party from Poland are also members of this group.