Marine Le Pen suspends cooperation with Germany's AfD

[President Johnson]

Imagine being too right-wing and insane for even Le Pen.

Le Pen's Rassemblement National (France's right-wing populists) is cancelling their cooperation with the German far-right AfD in the European Parliament. This follows a rift after news reports in January of the AfD discussing 'remigration' of foreigners, including naturalized German citizens. The final straw was the AfD's leading candidate for the EU parliamentary elections, Maximilian Krah, saying that not all SS members were bad. Krah is currently under investigation for taking bribes from Russia and China. A senior staffer of him has already been arrested for being a suspected Chinese spy.

https://twitter.com/imminent_news/status/1792969776303599923

https://twitter.com/ZaidJilani/status/1792958253531590805

[Zinneke]

Imagine being too right-wing and insane for even Le Pen.

I think you are looking at this the wrong way. This is a purely PR move.

Her entire reason for entering politics was to distance herself politically from her father (she was sidelined a lot at law school for having her father's last name + has infamously fallen out with him)

Her entire political project since taking charge is dédiabolisation and distancing yourself from the AfD a few weeks before an EU election is a great way to show some random misinformed voter 'well she clearly isn't a Nazi/pétainiste since she's sticking one to the German far right". It's free political points

Really though, RN is still for me a far right party with extreme right elements. Just go look up any of their major meetings and there are literal bona fide neo-fascist thugs who are still there, and many times in an official capacity. And unlike AfD they are not scrutinised or forced into covert operations. When Le Pen/RN comes to power  (it is a matter of when not  if IMO), these neo-fascist groups will have relative free reign.

That the EU far right parties struggle with each other is also just a matter of personal grudges a lot of the time. I think we tend to underestimate it vs actual political differences.You can put it down to a wide range of sociological factors. For example, far right politicians are often not as English-speaking or polyglot as centrist politicians in the EP, so it is much harder for them to break bread. They really just have the groupings because it affords them more money in the end, and its a testament to the fact that for all the influx of "far right intellectuals" that are desperate for a National Conservative Internationale to combat the broad stroke issues of immigration, crime, etc, its simply unfeasible when Le Pen runs on a program of shutting the Franco-Spanish border...they are all incapable of looking beyond narrow nationalism, and that's ultimately their downfall.

I still fully expect Von Der Leyen and the EPP to let in the clown car far right groupings to form alternate majorities at the EP on the issues that rile people up the most. Some in the EPP are desperate for RN to eventually be the grand party of the Right that UMP/LR was and to join the European political mainstream.

[lfromnj]

Le Pen has done some smart stuff to mainstream herself overall. Although she wasn't directly involved she still helped pass the Macron immigration bill after left wing factions from his party defected because LR demanded too much.

The Israel Hamas war also made the left seem more insane especially after the riots.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Le Pen is more the Flemish/Dutch brand of far right where they are economically left-wing (or populist is a better word), and increasingly brand themselves as pro-Israël to esp. in France & Belgium counter the Pro-Palestine center and left.

It's my belief that if Le Pen governs, it would be more like how Wilders would try to present himself & how Meloni governs Italy (though more economic populist/nationalist than her/him).

I'll admit though that of the far right brands the AfD isn't really the one i'm the most educated about, they seemed to be the more moderate faction but that was like 10 years ago. Things (seem to) have changed.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Imagine being too right-wing and insane for even Le Pen.

I think you are looking at this the wrong way. This is a purely PR move.

Her entire reason for entering politics was to distance herself politically from her father (she was sidelined a lot at law school for having her father's last name + has infamously fallen out with him)

Her entire political project since taking charge is dédiabolisation and distancing yourself from the AfD a few weeks before an EU election is a great way to show some random misinformed voter 'well she clearly isn't a Nazi/pétainiste since she's sticking one to the German far right". It's free political points

Really though, RN is still for me a far right party with extreme right elements. Just go look up any of their major meetings and there are literal bona fide neo-fascist thugs who are still there, and many times in an official capacity. And unlike AfD they are not scrutinised or forced into covert operations. When Le Pen/RN comes to power  (it is a matter of when not  if IMO), these neo-fascist groups will have relative free reign.

That the EU far right parties struggle with each other is also just a matter of personal grudges a lot of the time. I think we tend to underestimate it vs actual political differences.You can put it down to a wide range of sociological factors. For example, far right politicians are often not as English-speaking or polyglot as centrist politicians in the EP, so it is much harder for them to break bread. They really just have the groupings because it affords them more money in the end, and its a testament to the fact that for all the influx of "far right intellectuals" that are desperate for a National Conservative Internationale to combat the broad stroke issues of immigration, crime, etc, its simply unfeasible when Le Pen runs on a program of shutting the Franco-Spanish border...they are all incapable of looking beyond narrow nationalism, and that's ultimately their downfall.

I still fully expect Von Der Leyen and the EPP to let in the clown car far right groupings to form alternate majorities at the EP on the issues that rile people up the most. Some in the EPP are desperate for RN to eventually be the grand party of the Right that UMP/LR was and to join the European political mainstream.

Also agreed with this

But the far right becoming mainstream and establishing them as more mainstream parties, also in branding, is something we already see in Italy and the Netherlands now.

And distancing herself from her antisemitist father has a big part to do with this. Her pro-Israel position is also a way to compensate for that fact, to highlight that even more and also to polarize that debate and win the pro-Israel voters domestically.

She clearly knows what she's doing. And yes, fully agreed that it's not a question of if, but of when.

Le Pen is incredibly talented, she'll succeed where her father didn't. The question is more whether her father would still be alive to see that day.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The AfD really has come a long way from the originally Euro (as in the currency)-sceptic quasi-libertarian "FDP on steroids" to the pro-ethnic cleansing (their Potsdam conference last year) Russian intelligence asset that is way too right-wing for Le Pen. (And it is certainly electorally more successful as the latter!)

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

She kicked her own father out of the party he founded.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

She kicked her own father out of the party he founded.

And quite a long time ago, too.
This "moderate our image" thing has been going on for a very long time.

[Middle-aged Europe]

In other news, the AfD's lead candidate for the upcoming European election, Maximilian Krah, has resigned as member of his party's executive board and cancelled all further campaign events today.

It's seldom that a leading AfD politician quits due to controversy (because: "ILIGELL WITCHHUNDT!!") but I guess being a Russian intelligence asset and defending the SS does it.

[palandio]

Also interesting how La Repubblica's original question was about SS officers, and instead of directly answering the question, Krah immediately deflected towards his forcefully recruited Hungarian German grandfather-in-law and towards 17-year old Günter Grass.

[Santander]

Massive FF, the leader the West needs.

Imagine an axis of Le Pen/Orban/Salvini/Abascal/Trump.

Note that I never included AfD leaders in my dream political future. I must admit I wasn't expecting such a dramatic renaissance of Wilders at the time.

[Progressive Pessimist]

You have to give Le Pen credit for having decent political instincts.

This will probably help her in 2027, and she'll probably win.

[CumbrianLefty]

Yes, she does seem capable of learning from her mistakes.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Petr Bystron, the number two man on the AfD's candidate list and currently under investigation for Russian money laundering, has also cancelled all campaign events.

At least Le Pen recognizes when a brand has become too toxic.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

You have to give Le Pen credit for having decent political instincts.

This will probably help her in 2027, and she'll probably win.

Agreed, even if i'm not a fan of her (and neither will majority of the forum), but this is also part of the reasons why Le Pen tends to overperform what other candidates would get within her party or her brand.

While AfD likely will be sidelined for probably at least another decade.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1793227522131259447

Czech SPD and Salvini's Lega came out in support of Le Pen.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I guess you could say that almost 80 years after the war Germans still have a problem with patriotism - up to and including the AfD, since no political party is more "critical" of the state of our country and wants it to be more like Russia, cooperating rather closely with Putin's government. In fact, a frequently used argument by AfD peace activists is that it is a rather sad thing that 80 years after the war German-made tanks are again rolling through Ukraine, killing Russian soldiers.

[Middle-aged Europe]

In other news, the AfD chapter in the ID group in the European Parliament wants to expel their lead candidate Maximilian Krah from the ID.

This is in defiance to a decision the AfD executive board taken yesterday which had refused to implement further sanctions against Krah. The head of the AfD chapter in the EP, Christine Anderson, criticizes the executive board's lack of action.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The motion of the AfD MEPs to expel Krah from ID can be seen in the context of the motion of other right-wing parties to expel the entire AfD from ID. There is now basically a race of AfD expulsions.

[Middle-aged Europe]

ID expels entire AfD:

https://www.politico.eu/article/far-right-identity-and-democracy-group-expels-alternative-for-germany/

That was fast.