The AfD politician Maximilian Krah will not be part of the future AfD delegation in the European Parliament. The newly elected members of parliament voted on Monday at their inaugural meeting not to accept Krah, as the latter reported to WELT. In total, four voted for the politician, eight against him and three abstained.
He had made headlines because of possible connections to pro-Russian networks and also because of possible connections to China. After controversial statements by him about the National Socialist SS became known, the right-wing ID group in the European Parliament excluded the AfD shortly before the election.
AfD chairmen Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla met with the newly elected AfD MEPs in Berlin this morning to establish the party’s future delegation in the EU Parliament and to appoint a leader for the group. It’s about the group’s structures, said Weidel before the start of the conversation, “and I think we’ll leave here with a very good result,” she added.
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On the question of what role the top candidate Maximilian Krah and the second on the AfD list, Petr Bystron, would play in these structures, she said that the delegation would decide. Chrupalla had already referred to a press conference scheduled for the afternoon on Deutschlandfunk in response to corresponding questions that morning.
During a break in the deliberations, Krah answered questions from journalists about how he would feel if he were not included in the delegation. He said he would not find this particularly friendly, “and it would not stop me from continuing to work loudly and successfully for this party in the European Parliament.” He claimed credit for the success with young voters.
The AfD received 15.9 percent in the European elections in Germany on Sunday and will enter the new parliament with 15 representatives.