Politico reports:

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has been expelled from its pan-European group Identity and Democracy in the European Parliament following a series of scandals that have damaged its popularity and made it something of a pariah.

Long-simmering tensions between European far-right parties came to a boil this week when Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s lead candidate for the European election, told an Italian newspaper that members of the Nazi SS were not necessarily criminals.

Following those comments, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally party had belonged to the same grouping as the AfD, said she no longer wants to sit with the party.

The ID group’s leadership has now voted to expel the AfD, two weeks before millions of people head to the polls to vote in the European election. [Continue reading…]