The political repercussions continue following the arrest of a Chinese parliamentary aide to Maximilian Krah, lead AfD candidate for the European elections on suspicion of espionage. Krah was summoned to Berlin to explain the matter to his party boss Alice Weidel Wednesday morning.
Suspicions about the activity of Jian Guo, the arrested parliamentary assistant, from AfD party colleagues in Brussels were originally published by The European Conservative in April last year.
Popular among the party’s grassroots and critical of Atlanticist foreign policy, Krah found himself excluded from the AfD’s election launch in Berlin this morning, with speculation that the party would seek to remove the Dresden-based MEP from the head of the party’s list for June with the party distancing themselves from Krah on the campaign trail.
“In order not to burden the election campaign and the party’s reputation, he decided not to take part in the upcoming election campaign kick-off in Donaueschingen,” said the party leaders.
While Krah remains at the head of the list for now, this may change with the announcement of a new probe from German prosecutors regarding alleged payments from Chinese sources and likelihood that the MEP could have his parliamentary immunity lifted.
Regardless, Krah, who has been plagued by accusations of connections with both China and Russia before, was upbeat after meeting with Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla Wednesday morning, adamant that he would be at the helm of the AfD in Brussels after June’s elections.
Insider accounts of Krah’s interactions with AfD leadership however reveal a more frosty picture between the firebrand nationalist politician and the party’s more moderate Berlin executive with the 47-year-old MEP.
Krah has been resolute in declaring his innocence; many in the AfD claim that the week’s scandal is part of a wider effort to destabilise the party prior to June’s elections.
The clashes within the AfD this week are the culmination of years of internal disagreement over the future ideological course of the electorally buoyant nationalist party between more reform-minded figures, grouped around party headquarters in Berlin, and those perceived as being more radical—and described as in their ascendancy—in its Brussels delegation.
In July, AfD radicals scored a strategic victory during the selection of the party’s candidate list; many within the party’s ranks viewed it as heavily favouring radical nationalists loyal to Krah and Thuringian-based party boss Björn Höcke.
Speaking off the record to The European Conservative, multiple sources close to the AfD explained how this week’s espionage scandal will be used to neuter Krah, who is viewed by some at party headquarters as a political liability with heavy personal baggage.
Central to this is speculated to be the AfD’s third on the list, René Aust, alleged to be viewed more favorably by Berlin and Weidel, who could potentially take a more important role in the party’s Brussels pecking order regardless of whether Krah remains at the at the top of the list.
A potential dethronement of Krah could alter Franco-German relations within the nationalist Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament as perceived radicalism among the AfD delegation has unnerved many in the Le Pen-dominated group.
Celebrating its ten-year anniversary only last year, the AfD has suffered internally in recent months from its highly decentralised nature, with this week’s events seen by many as a chance to establish a firm party line on foreign policy issues.
