German far-right party ends drive to expel member over Nazi guilt remark

BERLIN — Leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party ends a drive for the expulsion of a prominent member who suggested the country end its tradition of acknowledging and atoning for its Nazi past.

The party’s national leadership decides unanimously Monday not to appeal last month’s decision by a party tribunal in the eastern state of Thuringia rejecting calls for Bjoern Hoecke’s expulsion.

In February 2017, the leadership voted to start expulsion proceedings against Hoecke, its leader in Thuringia. Hoecke had said Germany needs to perform a “180-degree turn” when it comes to remembering its past, and said the Berlin memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust is a “monument of shame.”

Expulsion proceedings were championed by then-party leader Frauke Petry, who left the party acrimoniously last fall.

— AP

Bjoern Hoecke, chairman of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the eastern federal state of Thuringia, gives a statement on February 13, 2017, at the Thuringian regional parliament in Erfurt, Germany. (AFP Photo/dpa/Hendrik Schmidt)