The AfD’s obsession with the Third Reich is driving a realignment of Europe’s far right

Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen, 2015. ‘If a new ‘super group’ came to pass, it would make them a force to reckon with.’ Photograph: Alessandro Serranò/AGF/Rex/Shutterstock

Momentous change is afoot within Europe’s far right. Just as voters across 27 countries prepare to go to the polls in EU elections, a split over the German far right’s allegiance to the Third Reich is driving a realignment.

The far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European parliament last week expelled the entire Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction from its ranks after a furore involving the leading AfD candidate Maximilian Krah.