Le Pen, ID close door on Germany’s AfD, again

France’s Marine Le Pen and the rest of the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) party opposed the idea of welcoming back Germany’s AfD party into their European Parliament group on Wednesday (12 June) after it was kicked out due to a series of scandals, several sources confirmed to Euractiv. 

Le Pen (Rassemblement National), Dutch government leader Gert Wilders (PVV), Portuguese far-right chief André Ventura (Chega), and Italy’s Matteo Salvini (Lega), among others, met in Brussels on 12 June to assess the election results and plot the next steps for ID.

The talks were meant “to lay the foundations for a broad centre-right alliance without socialists and eco-extremists,” Salvini stated beforehand, echoing these last months’ talks of a big alliance with the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament. 

Before the meeting, André Ventura, leader of Portugal’s Chega, stated, “One of the great topics is the possibility of having a great right-wing bloc.”

However, besides starting talks to shape up a closer alliance with the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, one of the key items on the agenda was whether to bring Germany’s far-right AfD back to the party. 

After a fall-out between the German far-right AfD and Le Pen, starting at the beginning of this year, the ID group expelled the German delegation two weeks before the EU elections on Sunday (9 June). 

ID’s members, led by the French, feared that several scandals involving AfD’s leader in the European Parliament, Maximilian Krah, could cost them valuable votes.

Hoping to be reaccepted into ID, the newly elected AfD lawmakers decided not to let Krah join their ranks on Monday (10 June). Austria’s FPÖ, a close ally, also started moving to ensure Le Pen would allow AfD back in. 

But despite the efforts, ID leaders decided not to let the AfD back into the group on Wednesday evening, as several sources confirmed to Euractiv.

For the alienated Krah, this came as no surprise. “I still think the path of renegotiating with the ID is wrong. Mrs Le Pen obviously takes a similar view,” he told Euractiv.

A senior source at AfD stated, “The French dominate the ID, and no one dares to break this dominance because everyone is enchanted by the fictitious prospect of winning the presidential elections.”

Coming out of the EU elections with a devastating loss for his liberal Renaissance, French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for national re-elections in just three weeks.

His main opponent, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, won the EU elections by a landslide with 31.37% of the votes and is projected to be one of the major winners of the upcoming national elections.

*Additional reporting by Sofia Sánchez Manzanaro.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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