Maximilian Krah is a member of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany), and until recently was part of the party’s leadership. However, Mr. Krah was the victim of an outbreak of the Screaming Nazi Heeber-Jeebers (SNHJ), an affliction that is particularly likely to appear whenever a conservative German says something that deviates even slightly from the Narrative about 1939-1945.

The sin of the unfortunate former AfD leader sin was to say that not all members of the SS had been war criminals. Which is an entirely reasonable historical assertion; amongst all the thousands of men in the SS, there must have been a considerable number who never took part in any atrocities.

Alas for Maximilian Krah, historical accuracy was not enough to exonerate him during an outbreak of the SNHJ. He was forced out of the leadership of the AfD. That in its turn was not enough to save the party, however: the AfD was repudiated by those who should have been its best friends, namely the leaders of fellow European right-wing nationalist parties, beginning with Marine Le Pen of Rassemblement National.

Now Matteo Salvini of the Lega has piled on. Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit:

Agrees with Le Pen

Now Salvini is also turning away from the AfD

Now things are happening in rapid succession: After the French Rassemblement National, the Italian Lega is also turning away from the AfD following SS statements by Maximilian Krah. The party is in shambles.

Rome

Next bad news for the AfD: After the French Rassemblement National (RN), the right-wing Italian party Lega under party leader Matteo Salvini is now distancing itself. According to the Ansa news agency, the party’s delegation in the EU Parliament announced that it agreed with the RN on the question of further cooperation with the AfD. “Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen are in perfect agreement, as always.” (Il partito di Marine Le Pen rompe con l’Afd: non siederemo più con loro. La Lega: pieno accordo con la leader francese.)

The background is an interview with the AfD’s top candidate for the EU elections, Maximilian Krah, in an Italian newspaper. When asked by the Italian mass daily La Repubblica, he said that not every member of the SS was automatically a criminal. “I will never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal.” The SS carried out several massacres in France and Italy towards the end of the Second World War.

Salvini governs as a junior partner together with Giorgia Meloni and is Minister of Transport. He was actually considered a loyal ally of the AfD until now. According to Junge Freiheit‘s information, the party of Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla was not invited to a major rally of European right-wing parties by the Spanish Vox party over the weekend. The FPÖ has not yet publicly expressed solidarity with the AfD, either.

Afterword from the translator:

It is always interesting — and at the same time frightening— to observe how a successful “right-wing” party in Germany can be dismantled. A fake media campaign against alleged “mass deportation”, as yet unproven accusations against Mr. Bystron, dubious events surrounding Mr. Krah’s employee and now stirred-up excitement about statements by Mr. Krah about members of the SS are enough. Of course, not every member of the SS was a war criminal, but the SS as a whole was already largely a criminal political organization — just like the “Office for the Protection of the Constitution”. And in purely factual terms, Krah didn’t say anything wrong. If you look at it objectively, any historian would agree with him. Even if the media are now throwing the headline “relativizing Nazi crimes” at him again. But the AfD should slowly take to heart that, from a purely tactical and strategic point of view, there is no winning with Nazi issues. That’s how it works in politics; historical truth has to take a back seat.

I can somewhat understand the allergic reactions of Le Pen and Salvini. They probably had to struggle long enough with trivial Nazi accusations and Nazi comparisons in their own country. They have developed a certain phobia and use every opportunity to distance themselves in a somewhat credible way.

And what’s more, of course: Germans have never had a problem with French, Italians or English people. Their government (elites) had. But from their perspective, Germans have always been kind of disgusting subhuman for some reason. It’s somehow important to them that Germans shouldn’t play in their league, especially after the Napoleonic Wars and their scramble for Africa. This is probably similar to how Germans, for their part, looked down on their neighbour Poland for a long time in a somewhat ignorant and arrogant manner. But if Europe, its culture and people are to survive and have a future, it’s time for them to stop clinging to a past that cannot be changed.