German far-right party expels regional leader over support for extremist group

The far-right Alternative for Germany party is expelling one of its regional leaders following a lengthy standoff over her support for a group described by intelligence officials as being extremist.

Alternative for Germany said that a national party tribunal decided to kick out Doris von Sayn-Wittgenstein because of “behavior damaging to the party.”

Von Sayn-Wittgenstein resigned as party leader in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s northernmost state, in December. She won the job back at a party congress in June, despite ongoing expulsion proceedings over her past support for the group Gedaechtnisstaette, or Memorial Site, which was co-founded by a convicted Holocaust denier.

The party is relatively weak in Schleswig-Holstein and has its biggest strongholds in the formerly communist east.

Von Sayn-Wittgenstein says she will take legal action against the decision.

— AP

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