Far-right grouping in European Parliament expels high-flying Alternative for Germany party

BERLIN (AP) — A German far-right party hoping for big gains in upcoming European elections suffered a another setback on Thursday when it was kicked out of a right-wing group in the European Parliament.
The Identity and Democracy group said it was expelling lawmakers from the Alternative for Germany party with immediate effect because of growing controversy surrounding its lead candidate in the June 6-9 polls.
“The ID Group no longer wants to be associated with the incidents involving Maximilian Krah,” it said in a statement released by Italy’s La Lega, a member of the group.
Thursday’s expulsion of the German party from its European Union umbrella group exposed deep rifts within the far right across the 27-nation bloc little more than two weeks ahead of elections in which they were supposed to surge.
It was not immediately clear what effect the expulsion would have on AfD but a swing to the right could raise questions about the bloc’s future direction in issues from climate protection and immigration to support for Ukraine.
The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, acknowledged Thursday’s decision.
“Nevertheless, we are optimistic about the election evening and the days to follow,” co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said in a statement.
The statement added that AfD leaders were “confident that we will continue to have reliable partners at our side in the new legislative period.”
They did not indicate who they could team up with ahead of the vote.
In an attempt to ward off Thursday’s split, the party on Wednesday banned Krah from making campaign appearances and said he would resign from the party board after he told an Italian newspaper that not all members of the Nazis’ elite SS unit, which was involved in major war crimes during World War II, were war criminals.
Krah, 47, had already been under scrutiny after authorities in Brussels searched his offices at the European Parliament in connection with one of his assistants who was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China.
German media have alleged that Krah has had personal ties to China and also Russia.
AfD had been riding high in opinion polls in Germany last year and also hopes to make big gains in state election in the east of the country in the fall. However, it has become less popular this year after millions of Germans protested against its radical far-right stance.
In addition to Krah, the No. 2 on AfD’s list for the European Parliament election, Petr Bystron, last month separately denied allegations in a Czech daily that he may have received money from a pro-Russian network.