The French National Rally will not sit with Alternative for Germany in the European Parliament – ​​POLITICO

Both the French and German parties are members of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament, which is expected to see a boost in support in the June elections. Parmentier did not say whether the National Rally planned to leave ID or whether he would seek to expel the German far-right party.

“This will have no impact on identity in a future mandate, because we have enough nationalities to maintain our political group,” said a Le Pen adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We have informed our allies that we do not want to sit down with them (AfD) to form the next group.”

At the time of writing, POLITICO’s poll places ID fourth in the European elections, but only one seat behind the Renew Liberals. Everything could change if these two parties separate.

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 wears an SS uniform was automatically a criminal”, a a reference to the German novelist Günter Grass, who admitted late in life to having joined the Waffen-SS when he was a teenager.

A Krah aide said he could not comment because he did not know what the French delegation intended to do. “We do not consider Günter Grass to be a criminal,” the aide added.

An official of the ID group, who requested anonymity to speak freely, declared: “We can also read this decision as saying that the RN (National Rally) wants to go to the (grouping) of non-registered people because he does not want to work with the IDENTIFIER any longer. This could…could be quite detrimental (to the French delegation).

“Until now, decisions were always taken by mutual agreement between all the national delegations of which the French delegation is a part. Times are pretty crazy, everyone is nervous,” the official added.