Last year, Maximillian Krah had to give up on the campaign of the Europeans of the far -right AFD party after controversial statements on the SS.
The former European deputy and former head of the List of the far-right alternative party for Germany (AFD) in the European elections last June, Maximillian Krah, will join the new German parliament, confirmed his spokesperson to Euronews.
Maximillian Krah had made the headlines last year After his resignation, in the middle of the electoral campaignfollowing controversial comments to Italian media according to which people who wore uniforms of the infamous Nazi unit of the Second World War were not “Automatically criminals”.
Under pressure from other far -right parties of its attachment group to the European Parliament, including the National Rally (RN) in France, the Lega in Italy and the Danish People’s Party (DF), Maximillian Krah had been excluded of the identity and democracy group (ID) today dissolved.
“I recognize that my factual and nuanced statements are used to unscatm as a pretext to harm our party,” Krah said in a message published on X.
The spy scandal in China is still not resolved
A second scandal had also marred the reputation of the deputy. Approaching the European elections, one of his parliamentary collaborators had been arrested for suspicions of spying on behalf of Beijing.
Jian G, had been apprehended by the German authorities to have “Transmitted information on several occasions” On the European Parliament to its “Customer of intelligence services” in China. The MEP offices in Brussels were then searched.
Since then, the investigation is undergoing its course. Last October, a woman working for a logistics service company at Leipzig/Halle airport was also arrested in Leipzig, suspected of having transmitted information to Jian G. The deputy spokesman told to Euronews Whether Jian G was in detention and a court had to decide whether or not he is guilty.
In response to this arrest, Maximillian Krah had declared on x that“There is no link between today’s arrest and my work”.
“The only criticism that I make in relation to my ex-employee of Chinese origin is that I was not more attentive”said the deputy.
AFD arrived second in the German elections last weekend with 20 % of the vote, a result that will pass its number of seats in the Bundestag from 76 to 152.
After his victory in his constituency of Chemnitzer Umland-Erzgebirgskreis II in Saxony, Maximilian Krah said he was ready to sit alongside Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, who will be the new AFD parliamentary group leaders.
The new deputy in the controversial past has won a direct mandate with 44 % of the votes, defeating the candidate of the Christian Democratic Union, Sophie Pojar, who obtained 27 % of the votes.
The former European deputy will join the parliamentary group alongside Matthias Helferich, who was elected to the Bundestag in 2021 but renounced his seat after having aroused the controversy within AFD for declarations he made on the Nazis.
The duo can only be dismissed from the group a majority of two thirds.
