In view of the criticism of the French AfD partners at the right-wing extremist meeting in Potsdam, the party’s top candidate for the European elections is trying to smooth things over.
“The irritations about the AfD in France will be cleared up,” wrote Maximilian Krah on X. “Everything will resolve itself happily.”
Disagreements between AfD and Le Pen
Marine Le Pen from the right-wing French National Rally said at the meeting in Potsdam: “I do not agree at all with the proposal (…) that is said to have been discussed or decided at this meeting.” “Remigration” in the sense of depriving French people of their acquired nationality has never been defended, even if this has happened under conditions that are questioned.
“So I think that, if that’s the case, we have a blatant difference of opinion with the AfD and that we need to talk together about big differences like this and see whether these differences have consequences for our capacity to be in a faction to ally, or not.”
However, Le Pen admitted that she was not the decision-maker on this issue. In general, the European Parliament is not looking for people with the same program, but rather people who believe that the states and not Brussels should decide on essential issues. Both Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and the AfD sit in the right-wing national ID group in the EU Parliament.
Krah is optimistic about France
Krah said in the French newspaper Le Point: “We suspect that Marine Le Pen acted on the basis of disinformation.” When people talk about “remigration,” they focus on illegal migrants, criminals and foreigners who have been living on welfare for years. This does not apply to German citizens.
Krah also emphasized that there is a long and solid partnership between Rassemblement National and the AfD. He is optimistic that this will continue. The head of the AfD delegation in the EU Parliament, Joachim Kuhs, made similar comments at the request of the German Press Agency.
The Potsdam meeting
The Potsdam meeting on November 25th was made public by the media company Correctiv. Some AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Union of Values took part. The former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he spoke about “remigration” there.
When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress. According to Correctiv, Sellner named three target groups: asylum seekers, foreigners with the right to remain – and “non-assimilated citizens.”
