In Crisis, Germany's AfD Bans Scandal-hit Lead Candidate From EU Vote Events

Germany's far-right AfD party on Wednesday banned its leading candidate from EU election campaign events, as it battled a series of scandals that sparked a break with its French allies

Berlin, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd May, 2024) Germany's far-right AfD party on Wednesday banned its leading candidate from EU election campaign events, as it battled a series of scandals that sparked a break with its French allies.

Maximilian Krah, the Alternative for Germany's top candidate in the upcoming vote, is being investigated for suspicious links to Russia and China.

Compounding the AfD's woes, Krah's claims over the weekend that someone who had been a member of the SS paramilitary force in Nazi Germany was "not automatically a criminal" led France's National Rally (RN) party to split with the AfD on Tuesday.

Krah said following talks with AfD's top brass on Wednesday that he will leave the party's Federal steering committee.

"The last thing that we need now is a debate about me. The AfD must keep its unity," Krah said on X, formerly Twitter.

"For this reason, I will not make any further campaign appearances and will step down as a member of the federal committee."

But the RN underlined that it was too little too late.

"The AfD is going from provocation to provocation," Marine Le Pen, the RN's party leader in parliament, told Europe 1 radio.

"It is time to make a clean break with this movement, which is not managed and which obviously is under the influence of radical groups within," she said.