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Germany’s AfD bans scandal-hit lead candidate from EU election events

Germany's AfD party on Wednesday banned its leading candidate from appearing at EU election campaign events, after France's main far-right party announced a split with the Germans over a slew of scandals involving the politician.

Published: 22 May 2024 11:14 CEST

Maximilian Krah, the AfD's top candidate for the European elections, speaks in front of a crucifix at an election event in Bavaria in May.

Maximilian Krah, the AfD's top candidate for the European elections, speaks in front of a crucifix at an election event in Bavaria in May. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Stefan Puchner

After a crisis meeting with the AfD’s top brass, Maximilian Krah, who is being investigated for suspicious links to Russia and China, said he will also leave the party’s federal steering committee.

“The last thing that we need now is a debate about me. The AfD must keep its unity,” Krah told Welt newspaper.

“For this reason, I will not make any further campaign appearances and will step down as a member of the federal committee.”

The anti-immigration party has been battling to draw a line under a series of controversies over the last weeks that have sent its popularity ratings sliding.

READ ALSO: How spying scandal has rocked troubled German far-right party

Krah is at the centre of a deepening crisis after one of his aides in the European Parliament was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

Krah and another AfD candidate for the EU elections, Petr Bystron, have also been forced to deny allegations they accepted money to spread pro-Russian positions on a Moscow-financed news website.

But German prosecutors have launched a preliminary investigation against Krah himself over reports of suspicious payments received from China and Russia.

The bad news for the AfD piled up further on Tuesday when France’s National Rally announced it “decided to no longer sit with” AfD deputies in the EU parliament.

The RN said it was going to create some distance from the AfD after Krah, in a weekend interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, said that someone who had been a member of the SS paramilitary force in Nazi Germany was “not automatically a criminal”.

The RN and AfD had been the key members of an EU parliament group called Identity and Democracy that also included several other European far-right parties.

READ ALSO: What’s at stake in Germany’s European election vote?

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Germany's left-wing Social Democrats submit member request in fight against social cuts

German press agency DPA had sight of the proposal, which is supported by the left-wing Forum DL21 group, which several SPD members of parliament belong to.

Referring to social affairs, health, youth, family, education, democracy and development cooperation, the paper states: “The departmental approaches of the ministries concerned must not be cut compared to the previous year’s budget. Instead, we need growth in these areas as well as significantly more investment in affordable housing, sustainable infrastructure, strong municipalities and ambitious climate protection.”

“An austerity budget would mean a ghost ride in economic, ecological and democratic terms,” the paper continues, concluding with an appeal: “The party calls on the members of the SPD parliamentary group to only agree to a federal budget under these conditions.”

The Jusos – the Young Socialists in the SPD – are also supporting the proposal: “The Juso Federal Executive Board supports the DL21 goal of a member request among SPD members for a strong investment budget and the prevention of an austerity budget as desired by the FDP,” a spokesman for the party’s youth told the DPA.

If successful, such a member request could restrict Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SDP) scope for action in the negotiations with Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens).

According to Forum DL21, the initiation of the request requires the support of one percent of SPD members from at least ten sub-districts in at least three federal states.

That corresponds currently to almost 4,000 members who would have to declare their support online within a month.

The request would then come into effect if 20 percent of members, i.e. around 76,000, support it within three months. The party executive must then declare whether it will grant the request – otherwise a member vote will be taken.

Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) is critical of the plan. “A federal budget like this is more than complex and completely unsuitable for a member survey,” he told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

The dispute over savings in the 2025 budget is currently paralysing Germany’s traffic light coalition and repeatedly raising questions about the continued existence of the three-party government.

Several departments do not want to comply with Lindner’s savings targets. The finance minister, however, insists that the brake on new government debt enshrined in Germany’s constitution (Grundgesetz) (it only makes provision for a limited amount of new debt) is adhered to.

Lindner argues that investment needs up to 2030 and beyond can be covered by the regular budget. However, this requires restructuring expenditure and shifting priorities – such as the social budget.

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