The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) delegation in the European Parliament will be led by René Aust, newly elected AfD politicians decided on Monday.
The decision comes after the group voted eight members to four to remove Maximilian Krah from their delegation. Krah was the AfD’s leading candidate in the European Parliament elections, but was banned by the party from campaigning in the run-up to the elections.
Aust is the deputy leader of the AfD at state level in the central German state of Thuringia.
Krah has been beset by several scandals, including allegations of accepting money from Russia and China. A former top aide to Krah was arrested separately on charges of spying for China.
Krah also made highly controversial comments to an Italian newspaper, saying that members of the infamous Nazi SS paramilitaries were not all criminals.
AfD co-chair Alice Weidel announced the decisions in Berlin on Monday, just hours after election results showed the AfD gaining seats and finishing in second place nationally with 15.9% of the vote.
Krah is still expected to take a seat in the European Parliament, and he is still a member of the AfD, but will be excluded from the AfD delegation.
Unlike Krah, the AfD’s number two candidate on the election list, Petr Bystrom, will be part of the AfD delegation in Brussels, despite also facing accusations of foreign influence.
Bystrom has been linked to a pro-Russian propaganda outlet and was allegedly captured on audio recordings accepting cash from sources linked to the Kremlin, according to a Czech newspaper report.
Bystrom strongly denied the allegations and according to AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla, he made an affidavit to his new colleagues on Monday that he had not taken any money and that the allegations against him are all false.
Krah’s exclusion from the AfD delegation could be part of an effort to put things in order with other far-right parties in the European Parliament that form the ID bloc, including French politician Marine Le’s right-wing populist National Rally Pen.
