German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has indirectly warned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen not to try to secure another term in office after the European elections with the help of right-wing extremists.
"It is clear to me that when the next [European] Commission is formed, it must not be based on a majority in parliament that also requires the support of right-wing extremists," Scholz said at a joint press conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro in Berlin on Thursday.
In this respect, he was "very saddened by the ambiguity of some of the political statements" recently heard, he said.
In April, von der Leyen did not rule out cooperating with the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, to which the party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the ultra-right Brothers of Italy, also belongs.
Von der Leyen, who is the lead candidate of the conservative European People's Party (EPP) group, defended her position in the EU Parliament on Thursday. "I worked very well with Giorgia Meloni in the European Council, as I do with all heads of state and prime ministers," the German Christian Democrat (CDU) politician said.
Scholz, a centre-left Social Democrat, said that his position was clear: "It will only be possible to establish a commission presidency that is based on the traditional parties ... Anything else would be a mistake for the future of Europe."
For her part, von der Leyen slammed Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party while on the campaign trail in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.
The AfD is at war with fundamental values, is pushing propaganda for Russian President Vladimir Putin and carrying out espionage for China, she said on Friday at a European election campaign event for her CDU party in the town of Steinhude.
Von der Leyen accused the AfD of having "brought Putin's propaganda into [German] society."
"Then the handcuffs recently clicked on a close associate of the AfD's lead candidate. The public prosecutor's office is firmly convinced that the man is spying for China from within the European Parliament," she criticized.
Federal-level CDU Chairman Friedrich Merz emphasized that the phantom of right-wing populists must be ended. The AfD is not the alternative for Germany, but its moral and economic decline, he said.
The right-wing to far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) parliamentary group expelled all nine AfD members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Thursday with immediate effect.
Previously, the AfD's lead candidate Maximilian Krah had caused sharp criticism with comments about the Nazi organization SS. An employee of Krah's was arrested around a month ago on suspicion of spying for China.
Party leader Tino Chrupalla sharply criticized the AfD's previous partners from Italy and France in the ID group.
He would not tolerate any interference from the parties of Meloni (Brothers of Italy) and Marine Le Pen (National Rally), he said on Friday evening at a regional party conference in Saxony.
As prime minister of Italy, Meloni is in favour of more migration and more weapons in the war in Ukraine, he said. "This Melonization will not happen with us." His party will not bend in order to become more respectable for others. "For us, German interests always come first."
Germans vote in the European elections on June 9.
