Both the French and German parties are members of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the EU Parliament, which is predicted to enjoy a surge in support in the June election. Parmentier did not specify if the National Rally was planning on leaving ID or if it would seek to have the German far-right party expelled.
“This will have no impact on ID in a future mandate, as we have enough nationalities to maintain our political group,” said an adviser to Le Pen, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We have informed our allies that we do not wish to sit with them [AfD] in forming the next group.”
At the time of writing, POLITICO’s Poll of Polls has ID finishing fourth in the EU election, but just one seat behind the liberals of Renew. That could all change if these two parties are split.
The French decision follows an interview with Maximilian Krah in the Italian daily La Repubblica in which the AfD lead candidate said he would “never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal,” a reference to German novelist Günter Grass, who admitted late in his life to having joined the Waffen-SS as a teenager.
A Krah aide said he could not comment because he did not know what the French delegation intended to do. “We don’t consider Günter Grass a criminal,” the aide added.
An ID group official, granted anonymity to speak freely, said: “We can also read this decision as saying that RN [National Rally] wants to go to the non-attached [grouping] because they don’t want to work longer with the ID. This could … could be quite harmful [to the French delegation].”
“Until now decisions were always taken in a common accord among all the national delegations of which the French delegation is one. Times are quite crazy, everyone is nervous,” the official added.
