Germany’s far-right AfD is looking for allies inside the European Parliament

The co-chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said on Thursday that she was very confident in finding an alliance in the European Parliament after her party was banned from the Identity and Democracy Group following a dispute with Marine Le Pen.

“We’ll continue to have exploratory discussions to identify alternative alliances,” said Alice Weidel, adding that she was very confident in this.

Alice Weidel said she hadn’t yet received an official position confirming the exclusion of the German party from the group.

She said that she wanted to wait for the outcome of some phone conversations, she would have with friends in Brussels before deciding on a possible alliance within parliament.

Her party was excluded from the Identity and Democracy Group ahead of the European elections on June 9, at the initiative of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party.

The French party decided to end cooperation with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) after the head of the German party’s list, Maximilian Krah, said in an interview with the Italian La Repubblica newspaper that members of the SS in the Nazi era weren’t necessarily criminals.

In the wake of the European elections, in which the AfD scored its best result in its history with 15.9% of the vote, the party’s leadership prevented the 47-year-old lawyer from sitting with 14 other members of his party elected to the European Parliament.

But according to Politico, the Identity and democracy parties decided during Wednesday’s meeting not to re-include the AfD.

The dispute between the French and German sides began before Maximilian Krah’s comments to La Repubblica.

Le Pen on the other hand, distanced herself from the party after revealing a far-right meeting involving members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to discuss a plan for the mass expulsion of foreigners or people of foreign origin.

Although the far-right emerged strong from the European elections, it remains divided within the European Parliament into two groups, Identity and Democracy and the European Conservatives and Reformists bloc, while rapprochement remains uncertain due to major differences between them, especially with regard to Russia.