Maximilian Krah

Maximilian Krah is a German far-right politician and formerAfD-Europa-Spitzenkandidat Krah ist nicht mehr als Anwalt zugelassen Sächsische Zeitung, March 15, 2024 lawyer. He is the AfD's top candidate for the 2024 European elections despite having connections with Chinese and Russian spies and having trivialized the atrocities of the Waffen-SS.AfD wählt Krah zum EU-Spitzenkandidaten taz, July 29, 2023 "German far right’s problems deepen after SS remarks" by Pauline Von Pezold and Paul Dallison, Politico, 2024 May 22 He was ultimately banned from campaigning due to these scandals.Germany’s far-right AfD bans leading candidate from EU election events, France24 22 May 2024
==Biography==
Krah was born in Upper Lusatia, but grew up in Dresden, where he also received his law degree.Radikaler Aufsteiger Die Zeit, May 16, 2019 Like many other AfD politicians and his father, he was a CDU member before taking a hard right turn. Since 2008, Krah managed parts of the finances of the antisemitic and archconservative Society of St. Pius X.Maximilian der Identitäre Sächsische Zeitung, May 25, 2022 He is also known for representing far-right clients and people balancing on the limits of free speech, for example:
*The chairman of a local homeless aid association who publicly wished "death and nothing else" upon the head of the Dresden food bank who did not want to cooperate with them due to the xenophobia and PEGIDA ties of some membersEine Entschuldigung reicht nicht Sächsische Zeitung, December 23, 2016
*AfD MdB Jens Maier who racially insulted the son of tennis player Boris BeckerAfD-Politiker wehrt sich gegen Schmerzensgeld für Noah Becker Sächsische Zeitung, January 24, 2019
*An ex-CDU (now AfD) local councillor and three other men who tied a mentally ill refugee with cable ties to a treeEine emotionale Lawine Sächsische Zeitung, April 25, 2017
*The notorious "Hutbürger", an off-duty cop who tried to stop reporters from filming a PEGIDA demonstration in heavy Saxonian accent, considered to be a) extremely funnyPegida-Demo: Ins Gesicht gefilmt extra-3, NDR, August 24, 2018 LKA Sachsen feat. HUTBÜRGER - Ins Gesicht gefilmt: STRAFTAT (Official Music Video) #pegizei and b) an attack on press freedomEin Jahr Hutbürger taz, July 31, 2019
* sectarian St. Pius X society bishop by day, Holocaust denier and antisemite by night. Die Piusbruderschaft und ihr Verhältnis zu Richard Williamson domradio.de, July 3, 2011
*Susanne Dagen, a book seller who got kicked out of a workshop about far-right networks hosted by a museum because she herself had ties to the New Right, which was making other participants feel uncomfortable.Stellungnahme: Warum die Dresdner Buchhändlerin Susanne Dagen nicht zu einem Workshop der Tagung „Die neue Mitte? Rechte Ideologien und Bewegungen in Europa“ zugelassen worden ist. dhmd.de,2. October 2018Urteil im Prozess um Dagens Rauswurf Sächsische Zeitung, June 28, 2016 
Krah was elected into the European Parliament in the 2019 election for the AFD. In 2022, he was suspended from the Identity and Democracy faction for half a year, because he chose to support the even crazier rather than Marine Le Pen.EU-Spitzenkandidat der AfD: Wie radikal ist Maximilian Krah? morgenpost.de, July 30, 2023 He put himself up to election as the mayor of Dresden in 2022, but ultimately failed with only 12% of the votes in the second round.Kommunalwahl 2022 Dirk Hilbert gewinnt OB-Wahl in Dresden mdr.de, July 11, 2022.
Krah was chosen as the AfD's top candidate for the upcoming European election in 2024.AfD wählt Krah zum EU-Spitzenkandidaten taz, July 29, 2023 
==Positions==
Krah is considered hardline right even for the AfD.AfD-Kandidat für Europawahl tagesschau.de, July 29, 2023 The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Germany's federal domestic intelligence service, classifies his statements as ethnic nationalist, islamophobic, xenophobic and directed against the constitution. In one of the many TikTok videos that he posted, he called for more pride in one's ancestors, referring to the generation of grand-parents and grand-grand-parents that managed to start a World War and murdered millions, really not something one should be proud of. Krah denied that his grandfather was an NSDAP member, despite investigations showing that his grandfather was an avid supporter.FBI befragte AfD-Mann Krah zu Russlandkontakt ZDF, April 16, 2024 In his Tweets, he sometimes referred to the worldview of Nazi jurist even directly plagiarizing him once.AfDler erklärt offen, warum sie vom Verfassungsschutz beobachtet werden müssen, volksverpetzer.de, Feb 1, 2019 Like other far-right extremists, Krah appropriated the term "Umvolkung" (literally "change of the people") straight from the vocabulary of the original Nazis to propagate the conspiracy theory that Muslim immigrants are exploiting the tolerance of the left to colonialize Europe.Wir veröffentlichen das Verfassungsschutz-Gutachten zur AfD netzpolitik.org, January 28, 2019 However, this does not keep him from trying to appeal to young voters of Turkish origin«Unsere Vorfahren waren keine Verbrecher»: Der AfD-Spitzenkandidat Krah will die Christlichdemokraten «zerstören» – auch mithilfe türkischstämmiger Wähler nzz, September 7, 2023 and praising the Taliban for invading Kabul during Pride month.Lob für Taliban und Nähe zu den Identitären – das ist AfD-Mann Krah Frankfurter Rundschau, August 2, 2023 Even though he is no fan of the European Union, he does not want a "Dexit" like some of his fellow party members, rather wanting the far-right to try to gain power inside the system and then alter it to their will. 
Krah's positions are so extreme that they even helped repel Marine Le Pen and other members of National Rally (RN) away from the entire AfD party. In May 2024, Krah defended the Waffen-SS (the main paramilitary force of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party and a leading part of the Holocaust) in an interview, proclaiming that the SS "were not all criminals" and that many SS members were "simple farmers who didn’t have another choice". This was the last straw for many RN members — even they felt that these remarks trivialized the Nazi era and its numerous atrocities. As a result, the RN announced that they would no longer align with AfD in the European Parliament. Due to the fallout from this interview, Krah stepped back from his 2024 European Parliament campaign and resigned from the senior leadership team of AfD."French far-right National Rally splits with Germany's AfD", Deutsche Welle, 2024 May 22"German far right in turmoil after its top candidate defends SS" by Guy Chazan and Leila Abboud, Financial Times, 2024 May 22, archived 2024 May 22"German AfD candidate steps aside after SS comments as EU's far right splits", Reuters, 2024 May 22
===Friends all around the world===
Contrasting the stance of many other far-right European parties, Krah seems to think that the greatest danger to Germany stems not from the Islamic world, but rather from the "woke West", i.e. the USA, joining a flourishing tradition of anti-Americanism and Russophile attitude in the German right-wing landscape.Beim Russen buckeln gehen? Die AfD streitet über ihren aussenpolitischen KursNeue Zürcher Zeitung, 07-01-2023Pro-russische Netzwerke: Moskautreue Rechtetagesschau.de, April 29, 2016 In 2024, messages between Krah and his close friend, the pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Oleh Voloschyn, surfaced. Voloschyn assured Krah that "we settled the issue of our compensation for your technical expenditures. From May on it will be as it used to be before February." Voloshyn is sanctioned by the USA and accused of state treason by Ukraine, which made Krah the target of an FBI investigation. Krahs former assistant, Guillaume Pradoura, was a commited admirer of Vladimir Putin and organized interview partners for the right-wing online platform and Russian psyop Voice of Europe. Voice of Europe is suspected of bribing both Krah and his fellow party member Petr Byrson. Krah also gave Janusz Niedźwiecki, a suspected Russian spy, a permanent access authorisation to the European parliament.[www.t-online.de/nachrichten/deutschland/innenpolitik/id_100404822/afd-skandal-spitzenkandidaten-brachten-mutmasslichen-spion-des-kremls-in-bundestag.html AfD-Politiker brachten Putin-Spion in den Bundestag]t-online.de, May 25, 2024
 
Krah is suspiciously reluctant to vote against Chinese interest in the European Parliament, even when other party colleagues are doing otherwise,Spitzenkandidat der AfD soll Geld aus China erhalten haben Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 2, 2023 and promotes stronger economic ties between China and Germany while dismissing the Uyghur genocide as anti-Chinese propaganda. This might be connected to one of his assistants, a Chinese expatriate, who was spying on Chinese opposition members and repeatedly passed on secret information from the European Parliament to China.China spying: Krah still tops AfD's EU ticket Deutsche Welle, April 24, 2024 Krah also undertook several trips to China that were paid for by a state-owned company. In these trips, he established contacts to the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC), according to the German domestic intelligence agency (Verfassungsschutz), IDCPC is a de-facto part of the Chinese secret service aiming to gather valuable political information and influence politicians abroad.Das IDCPC als Teil von Chinas Nachrichtendienstapparat Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, July 28, 2023Das China-Gate des AfD-Spitzenkandidaten t-online.de, October 1, 2023
===Antisemitism? Where?===
In 2019, a photo of Guillaume Pradoura, assistant of the Rassemblement National general secretaryUn colistier de Marion Maréchal-Le Pen a aidé un skinhead en cavale, mediapart.fr, 9 January, 2016 was published by an ex-RN member. Pradoura posed as the classic caricature of the menacing orthodox Jew, complete with long locks and black hat. Because of this textbook example of antisemitism, his party expelled him. Shortly after this, Krah appointed him as an assistant, apparently neither deterred by the ongoing scandal nor by Pradoura being a co-founder of the Identitarian Movement or his close friendship with a violent skinhead and literal KKK member. When confronted with the image, Krah called it a "carnival gag", allegedly having been shot at a screening of Louis de Funes cult classic and denied the underlying antisemitim.Maximillian Krah stellt französischen antisemitischen IB-Mitbegründer ein belltower.news, July 31, 2019 Soon after, Pradoura stopped working for Krah for unknown reasons.Internet Archive capture of Krah's MEP site, archived Jan 6, 2023 Nevertheless, he is still active in EU politics, now working as an assistant for the Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff.Marcel de Graaff's official MEP site retrieved January 1, 2024 
Krah also has claimed that George Soros wants to destroy humanity.AfD-Parteitag: Die Rechten schicken ihre Rechten nach BrüsselBerliner Kurier, August 30, 2023
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Alt-right
Category:Antisemites
Category:European politicians
Category:Fascists
Category:Germany
Category:German politics
Category:Great Replacement conspiracy theorists
Category:Lawyers
Category:Living people
Category:Plagiarists
Category:Racists
Category:Vatniks