German far right in disarray after AfD Nazi remark

A top far-right German politician says he will pull back from campaigning for the upcoming EU elections – although he will remain his party’s lead candidate.

The latest controversy comes after the Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s Maximilian Krah told an Italian newspaper that SS members weren’t automatically “criminals”.

“It depends. You have to assess blame individually. At the end of the war there were almost a million SS. Günter Grass was also in the Waffen SS,” he told La Repubblica, referring to the German novelist who wrote The Tin Drum.

“Before I declare someone a criminal, I want to know what he did.”

The SS, or Schutzstaffel, were a Nazi paramilitary group active in the 1930s and 1940s. Among other war crimes, SS members played a leading role in the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews and others during World War Two.

In response to the remarks, France’s far-right National Rally (RN) announced it would no longer sit with the AfD in the European Parliament.

RN leader Marine Le Pen told French radio that “it was urgent to establish a cordon sanitaire” between the parties.

“Cordon sanitaire” is a term used by some political parties to reject cooperation with movements viewed as too extreme. It is often used by French politicians to reject working with Ms Le Pen’s RN.

“It’s time to make a clean break with this movement,” she added.

In February, AfD leader Alice Weidel met with RN leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella in an attempt to heal a rift between the parties.