According to Anders Vistisen from Danish People’s Party (DF), the German party AfD is expected to be expelled from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament on Thursday. The controversial German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has not met an ultimatum from its group in the European Parliament, which, among others, Danish People’s Party has also been a part of. This was stated by Anders Vistisen, who is the lead candidate for DF in the upcoming EU election. Therefore, Anders Vistisen now has a “clear expectation” that there will be a majority in the right-wing Identity and Democracy group to remove AfD from the group later on Thursday.
Maximilian Krah, AfD’s lead candidate for the EU election and a member of the European Parliament, has made highly controversial statements to an Italian media outlet, as reported by the EU media Politico. He stated that he “would never say that anyone wearing an SS uniform is automatically a criminal,” referring to the Nazi uniforms. As a response to this, an ultimatum was given on Tuesday by Anders Vistisen, who is part of the ID group in the European Parliament, demanding that AfD should remove Maximilian Krah and other “extremist elements” from the party. Otherwise, the party cannot continue in the ID group.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), they responded that Krah is suspending his campaign and stepping down from the leadership, but he remains a member of the party and will represent them if elected to the European Parliament, which is highly likely,” said Anders Vistisen. “This is far from sufficient compared to what we had expected if they were to have a chance to stay. A process to remove all nine AfD members of the European Parliament from the ID group is now underway on Thursday,” according to Anders Vistisen. It is his expectation that the necessary majority will be reached.
Politico has also previously reported on how the French National Rally with Marine Le Pen at the helm has stated that they will not be in the same group as AfD, as it stands now. The ID group currently has 58 members of the European Parliament from eight countries.