Germany’s AfD party has gone too far, even for Europe’s far-right coalition

Maximilian Krah, a right-wing German lawmaker, made comments seen as so explosively outside the mainstream of acceptable political discourse, that his party was disowned by other far-right leaders, breaking a major coalition in the European Parliament.

A right-wing German lawmaker made comments seen as so explosively outside the mainstream of acceptable political discourse, that his party was disowned by other far-right leaders, breaking a major coalition in the European Parliament. Maximilian Krah, of the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party, told an Italian newspaper that he didn’t view all members of a notorious Nazi paramilitary group automatically as criminals. He claimed that some in the SS, whose primary role was guarding concentration camps during World War II, were in fact just farmers. “Before I declare someone a criminal, I want to know what he did. Among the 900,000 SS men there were also many farmers: there was certainly a high percentage of criminals, but not all of them were. I will never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal,” Krah told La Repubblica last weekend. The AfD have since banned the 47-year-old Krah, their leading candidate in next month’s European elections, from making public appearances. Experts say his remarks have also caused reverberations across Europe’s far-right, shining a light on how the continent’s far-right parties view themselves and their associations. After Krah’s interview was published on Saturday, his party suspended him on Wednesday, and said that he had taken ”full responsibility” for his actions and agreed to step down from its federal executive board with immediate effect. In a scathing statement, the AfD accused Krah of having caused “massive damage to the party in the current election campaign, for which the candidate had provided the pretext.”