Germany’s far-right AfD seeks to oust state leader for Holocaust comments

The heads of the far-right German party Alternative for Germany are calling for the ouster of a local official who branded a Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame.”

AfD leader Frauke Petry slams the comments, saying the speech by AfD’s Thuringia state leader Björn Hocke in Dresden last month is beyond the point of what is acceptable for the party.

In his speech to young AfD members, Hocke derided the Berlin memorial to the Jews who perished in the Holocaust as a “monument of shame,” and denounced the country’s efforts to come to terms with its history, according to the German news outlet Deutsche Welle.

“These stupid politics of coming to grips with the past cripple us — we need nothing other than a 180-degree reversal on the politics of remembrance,” Hocke said.

The final decision on his removal will be made by an AfD arbitration committee in Thuringia, DW says.