AfD Eyeing Potential Alliances in Europe Following AFD's Exclusio
In the past, the right-wing grouping Identity and Democracy (ID) in the European Parliament made it clear that they wouldn't welcome the AfD back into their parliamentary delegation, even after the dismissal of their controversial member Maximilian Krah. According to the magazine "Politico," this decision was made at a gathering in Brussels and was attended by French Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen and other representatives of the right-national ID group.
Weidel, a member of the AfD, stated on Thursday that her party hadn't yet received an "official notification" from Le Pen's party. She mentioned that she would wait for "a couple of phone calls" before deciding on the matter of party membership.
On Wednesday afternoon, Le Pen and Salvini from the Italian Lega met with other politicians of the ID faction in Brussels to explore a right-wing alliance. The AfD was deliberately left out of this gathering. Salvini revealed on Thursday that the objective of the meeting was to bring together all right-wing parties.
Among the attendees of the gathering, Salvini named Geert Wilders from the Netherlands, Harald Vilimsky from Austria, Tomio Okamura from the Czech Republic, André Ventura from Portugal, Morten Messerschmidt from Denmark, Gerolf Annemans and Tom van Grieken from Belgium.
The ID faction had asked the Germans to leave shortly before the elections following Krah's dismissive remarks about the SS in an Italian newspaper. He had stated that not all SS members were criminals. In France, these statements were perceived as minimizing the Nazi era. However, Le Pen had already distanced herself from the AfD after a secret meeting on "Remigration" with them shortly after the elections.
The AfD achieved its best result in a European election with 15.9% despite this. Krah was subsequently dismissed from their delegation in an attempt to mend relations with Le Pen and the ID faction.
For a comprehensive right-wing alliance, Le Pen and Salvini would need to join forces with the second right-wing group, European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). This includes, among others, the post-fascist Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose own party, Rassemblement National, also triumphantly won the European election.
