25-02-2025
Scandal-hit AfD politician makes comeback in German Bundestag
Krah was the AfD's top candidate for the European elections last year but was excluded from its delegation after comments in which he minimised the crimes of the Nazis' notorious SS.
However, he was able to run as an AfD candidate in the eastern state of Saxony in Sunday's general election in Germany, and won with more than 44 percent of the vote.
At the party's meeting on Tuesday to form its new parliamentary grouping, it was confirmed that he would sit as an AfD lawmaker despite attracting criticism within the party in the past.
His comments last year also prompted the AfD's expulsion from the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament, in which France's National Rally (RN) and Italy's League had been its partners.
Krah also hit the headlines after one of his aides was arrested on suspicion of spying for China, and after he was forced to deny allegations that he accepted money to spread pro-Russian positions on a Moscow-financed news website.
Another notable face in the new AfD intake is 30-year-old Dario Seifert, who won the seat formerly represented by ex-chancellor Angela Merkel in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Seifert is a former member of the youth wing of the neo-Nazi NPD and has frequently been quoted expressing revisionist opinions about Germany's Nazi past.
Another new AfD MP who has caused controversy, including within the party, is Matthias Helferich, who once described himself as "the friendly face of National Socialism".
He says he hopes to serve on parliament's culture committee and "answer left-wing culture war with right-wing cultural policy".
The AfD doubled its vote share to more than 20 percent and will have the second-biggest group in the new parliament, with 152 seats out of a total of 630.
