Maximilian Krah

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Maximilian Krah (1977–) is a German far-right politician and former[1] lawyer. He is the AfD's top candidate for the 2024 European elections.[2]

Biography[edit]

Krah was born in 1977 in Lusatia, but grew up in Dresden, where he also got his law degree[3]. 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[4]. 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 publically 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 members[5]
  • AfD MdB Jens Maier who racially insulted the son of tennis player Boris Becker [6]
  • an ex-CDU (now AfD) local councillor and three other men who tied a mentally ill refugee with cable ties to a tree [7]
  • the notorious "Hutbürger" [note 1], an off-duty cop who tried to stop reporters from filming a PEGIDA demonstration in heavy Saxonian accent, considered to be a) extremely funny[8][9] and b) an attack on press freedom[10].
  • Richard Williamson, sectarian Pius society bishop by day, Holocaust denier and antisemite by night. [11]
  • 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.[12][13]

Maximilian Krah was elected into the European Parliament in the 2019 election for the AFD. In 2022, he was suspended from the Identity and Democracy fraction for half a year, because he chose to support the even crazier Éric Zemmour rather than Marine Le Pen.[14] He has put himself up to election as the mayor of Dresden, but ultimately failed with only 12% of the votes in the second round.[15] Krah was chosen as the AFD's top candidate for the upcoming european election in 2024.[16]

Positions[edit]

But you are the majority for whom we make politics. When I look around, it is not colorful nor diverse [...] You are all german, saxonian, white.
— Krah at a rally in 2019[3]

Maximilian Krah is considered hardline right even for the AFD.[17] The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Germany's federal domestic intelligence service, classifies his statements as ethnic nationalist, islamophobic, xenophobic and directed against the constitution.[18] In one of the many Tiktok videos he posted[note 2], he calls 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 a NSDAP member, despite investigations showing that he was an avid supporter.[20][21] In his tweets, he sometimes refers to the worldview of NS-jurist Carl Schmitt, even directly plagiarizing him once.[22] 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.[18] However, this does not keep him from trying to appeal to young voters of Turkish origin[20] and praising the Taliban for invading Kabul during Pride month[23]. 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.[3]

Friends all around the world[edit]

No hatred to see here, please go on.

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.[24][25] In 2024, messages between Krah and 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 a FBI investigation.[21]

He is suspiciously reluctant to vote against Chinese interest in the European parliament, even when other party colleagues are doing otherwise,[26] 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 expat, who was spying on Chinese opposition members and repeatedly passed on secret information from the European parliament to China[27]. Krah also undertook several trips by to China that were paid for by a state-owned company where he established contacts to the International Department of the Central Comittee of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC), according to the Verfassungsschutz a de-facto part of the Chinese secret service aiming to gather valuable political information and influence politicians abroad.[28][29]

Antisemitism? Where?[edit]

In 2019, a photo of Guillaume Pradoura, assistant of the Rassemblement National general secretary[30] was publicated 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, Maximilian 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.[30] When confronted with the image, Krah called it a "carnival gag", allegedly having been shot at a screening of Louis de Funes cult classic "Rabbi Jacob", and denied the underlying antisemitim.[31] Soon after, Pradoura stopped working for Krah for unknown reasons.[32] Nevertheless, he is still active in EU politics, now working as an assistant for the Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff.[33]

Completedly unrelated, but Krah is claiming that George Soros wants to destroy humanity.[34]

Notes[edit]

  1. a wordplay of "Hut" (hat) with "Wutbürger" (angry citizien, mostly used for PEGIDA)
  2. Some of them are produced by Erik Ahrens, managing director of the GegenUni[19]

References[edit]

  1. AfD-Europa-Spitzenkandidat Krah ist nicht mehr als Anwalt zugelassen Sächsische Zeitung, March 15, 2024
  2. AfD wählt Krah zum EU-Spitzenkandidaten taz, July 29, 2023
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Radikaler Aufsteiger Die Zeit, May 16, 2019
  4. Maximilian der Identitäre Sächsische Zeitung, May 25, 2022
  5. Eine Entschuldigung reicht nicht Sächsische Zeitung, December 23, 2016
  6. AfD-Politiker wehrt sich gegen Schmerzensgeld für Noah Becker Sächsische Zeitung, January 24, 2019
  7. Eine emotionale Lawine Sächsische Zeitung, April 25, 2017
  8. Pegida-Demo: Ins Gesicht gefilmt extra-3, NDR, August 24, 2018
  9. LKA Sachsen feat. HUTBÜRGER - Ins Gesicht gefilmt: STRAFTAT (Official Music Video) #pegizei
  10. Ein Jahr Hutbürger taz, July 31, 2019
  11. Die Piusbruderschaft und ihr Verhältnis zu Richard Williamson domradio.de, July 3, 2011
  12. 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 2018
  13. Urteil im Prozess um Dagens Rauswurf Sächsische Zeitung, June 28, 2016
  14. EU-Spitzenkandidat der AfD: Wie radikal ist Maximilian Krah? morgenpost.de, July 30, 2023
  15. Kommunalwahl 2022 Dirk Hilbert gewinnt OB-Wahl in Dresden mdr.de, July 11, 2022
  16. AfD wählt Krah zum EU-Spitzenkandidaten taz, July 29, 2023
  17. AfD-Kandidat für Europawahl tagesschau.de, July 29, 2023
  18. 18.0 18.1 Wir veröffentlichen das Verfassungsschutz-Gutachten zur AfD netzpolitik.org, January 28, 2019
  19. AfD-naher Aktivist will Frauen zur Abgabe von Eizellen verpflichten, prosieben.de, January 25, 2021
  20. 20.0 20.1 «Unsere Vorfahren waren keine Verbrecher»: Der AfD-Spitzenkandidat Krah will die Christlichdemokraten «zerstören» – auch mithilfe türkischstämmiger Wähler nzz, September 7, 2023
  21. 21.0 21.1 FBI befragte AfD-Mann Krah zu Russlandkontakt ZDF, April 16, 2024
  22. AfDler erklärt offen, warum sie vom Verfassungsschutz beobachtet werden müssen, volksverpetzer.de, Feb 1, 2019
  23. Lob für Taliban und Nähe zu den Identitären – das ist AfD-Mann Krah Frankfurter Rundschau, August 2, 2023
  24. Beim Russen buckeln gehen? Die AfD streitet über ihren aussenpolitischen KursNeue Zürcher Zeitung, 07-01-2023
  25. Pro-russische Netzwerke: Moskautreue Rechtetagesschau.de, April 29, 2016
  26. Spitzenkandidat der AfD soll Geld aus China erhalten haben Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 2, 2023
  27. China spying: Krah still tops AfD's EU ticket Deutsche Welle, April 24, 2024
  28. Das IDCPC als Teil von Chinas Nachrichtendienstapparat Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, July 28, 2023
  29. [https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/deutschland/innenpolitik/id_100247784/afd-maximilian-krah-das-geld-aus-china-und-die-geheimdienste.html Das China-Gate des AfD-Spitzenkandidaten
  30. 30.0 30.1 Un colistier de Marion Maréchal-Le Pen a aidé un skinhead en cavale, mediapart.fr, 9 January, 2016
  31. Maximillian Krah stellt französischen antisemitischen IB-Mitbegründer ein belltower.news, July 31, 2019
  32. Internet Archive capture of Krah's MEP site, archived Jan 6, 2023
  33. Marcel de Graaff's official MEP site retrieved January 1, 2024
  34. AfD-Parteitag: Die Rechten schicken ihre Rechten nach BrüsselBerliner Kurier, August 30, 2023