The far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has been expelled from its pan-European parliamentary group after a string of recent controversies over its policy choices and the conduct of some of its leaders.
“The bureau of the Identity and Democracy group in the European parliament has decided today to exclude the German delegation, AfD, with immediate effect,” the ID group of populist far-right parties said in a statement on Thursday.
The day before, AfD’s lead candidate in June’s European elections resigned from the party leadership and renounced all further campaign activities following criticism of comments he made last weekend that the Nazi SS were “not all criminals”.
I must say I’ve been greatly enjoying AfD’s untergang over the past year or so.
Untergang? Yes, they have dropped in percentage points in for now. But they are far from faltering. The EU election is relatively unimportant compared to what’s coming: Keep a close eye on the three state elections in Germany later this year.
They may get higher percentages in some federal states, but that doesn’t make those states’ parliaments more important than the EU imho
Even if they held 50% of the German parliamentary seats in the EU parliament, there is only so much power they can wield against everyone else. But if they hold power in the state level, they can directly cause massive harm there. And worst of all they can do so in a way that ensures their continued political power.
Think of it like this: Spreading some Coronavirus outside has potentially a lot of victims, but them getting infected is unlikely. Spreading it inside has fewer victims but a great chance of infecting them, which subsequently turns them infectious too.
I’ll enjoy it when I see it.