Germany’s far-right AfD party to eject members for suspected links to militant group
By Rachel More
BERLIN (Reuters) -The Alternative for Germany, a far-right party polling second nationally, will expel three members arrested for suspected involvement in an extremist group accused by prosecutors of planning an armed revolt, the party said on Wednesday.
The AfD said it would initiate court proceedings to kick out “members affected by the measures taken by the attorney general”, after eight people were arrested and 20 properties searched during a police operation on Tuesday.
In Germany, political parties need to demonstrate a serious violation in order to expel a member.
The operation targeted the Saxonian Separatists, a small group driven by racist ideology and conspiracy theories that had been training in warfare for the downfall of the modern German state.
It had thwarted “early stage militant coup plans”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Tuesday. Investigators said the group was planning to establish a new system in the country’s east inspired by Nazism.
“No matter on whose behalf the Saxonian Separatists have been operating, there is no place for them in our party of freedom, peace and national sovereignty,” an AfD statement said.
Spiegel reported that unregistered firearms had been seized as well as ammunition and silencers. A spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the report.
The AfD declined to give details on the identities of the three members.
Describing it as an “urgent and serious case”, the AfD said it would suspend their membership rights with immediate effect until the arbitration court reaches a decision.
The AfD is treated as a suspected extremist organisation by the German domestic intelligence service. The AfD says it is a democratic political party and has challenged the designation in court.
(Reporting by Rachel More, Editing by Miranda Murray and Philippa Fletcher)
