The AfD is making a promise to voters before the EU Parliament election on June 9, 2024: it is fighting against “restrictions on national sovereignty and the redistribution of wealth and assets through EU regulations.” And she says in her European election program that she also wants to win over other European parties to this goal.
But after all the AfD scandals in the past few months – who in Europe still wants to form a common group with the partly right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany and its scandals? With a party in which politicians are suspected of accepting illegal money from Russia? Or who are said to have employed a Chinese spy and adore China’s authoritarian regime?
In particular, the relationship with France’s extreme right, Marine Le Pen and her Rassemblement National, RN, party has been heavily strained for months. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports insider statements that the RN is considering leaving the extreme right’s common group, the “Identity and Democracy” group, after the European elections. At a press conference on Friday, April 26, 2024, RN party leader Jordan Bardella did not want to comment on the friendly party from Germany.
Marine Le Pen wants to become President of France – the scandals of her friendly AfD are disrupting the strategy of appearing moderateImage: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images
Europe’s extreme right and Putin
The AfD’s scandals are disrupting Marine Le Pen and her plans to become president of France. Because the proximity to radicals, to the autocratic aggressive warrior Vladimir Putin and to a Chinese spy do not fit into their presidential strategy. In 2017, she proudly presented herself at Putin’s side and accepted a multi-million dollar loan from a Kremlin-affiliated bank.
But now France’s right is seeking distance. AfD party leader Alice Weidel already made this felt in February. At a meeting between the two on April 20, 2024 in Paris, Le Pen is said to have demanded a written commitment from Deutsche never to allow suspected plans to expel migrants from Germany to become a party program.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is considered a transatlanticist – unlike other European right-wing partiesImage: ABACAPRESS/IMAGO
In Italy, too, the ultra-right do not seem to be promising partners for the AfD. In January 2024, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni declared that there were “irreconcilable differences” between her ultra-right Fratelli d’Italia party and the AfD. They would start with relations with Russia, Meloni said at a press conference in Rome. The post-fascist Meloni is considered a hardliner in domestic and migration policy, but in foreign policy, unlike the AfD, she is oriented towards the transatlantic alliance with the USA.
AfD distances itself from Krah
The AfD itself reacts to its own scandals with uncertainty. At the start of the election campaign at the end of April, the party leadership ordered its own top candidate Maximilian Krah not to take part. Because the list of accusations, suspicions and rumors surrounding him has become too long: an employee of his has just been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
According to media reports, the FBI also questioned Krah in New York about the money from Russia. And the Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office opened two preliminary investigations against him on suspicion of illegal payments from Russia and China. Krah denies all allegations. He has offered to cooperate with the security authorities.
AfD politician Petr Bystron is suspected of having accepted illegal funds from a pro-Russian propaganda networkImage: Sachelle Babbar/ZUMA/picture alliance
Another problem for the AfD is that number two on the election campaign list is also currently damaged. Petr Bystron is also suspected of receiving illegal payments from Russia. In his case, the suspicion seems even more serious: the media reports on audio recordings in which Bystron is said to have claimed that the money was being paid out in bills that were too large.
As the scandals expand, the party leadership is also coming under fire within its own ranks. The outgoing AfD MEP Sylvia Limmer criticizes the fact that a controversial politician with his contacts in China was nominated as the top candidate: “Because the evidence was sufficiently well known.”
AfD: no end to the scandals?
The end of the scandals is far from certain for the AfD. The German Justice Minister, Marco Buschmann, expects further espionage cases in the coming months: “We have to assume that we will carry out further exposures in the next few months,” Buschmann told ARD television.
And in addition to Maximilian Krah and Petr Bystron, the AfD candidate list for the EU Parliament election includes other controversial party members. In the past, the promising candidate Siegbert Droese posed with his hand on his heart in front of Hitler’s Führerbunker, the so-called Wolf’s Lair.
Droese also had an AfD car campaigned with the scene’s typical symbols for Adolf Hitler as its license plate. And in the front seats there are also two members who were banned from holding office by their own party because of alleged imposture.