'Or gas them': Germany's far-right AfD fires official over migrant comment
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's hard right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party fired an official on Monday who had been caught on a hidden camera discussing gassing refugees.
In footage, recorded secretly by ProSieben television in February, Christian Lueth, then a party spokesman, was filmed in a Berlin cafe talking to someone he believed to be a sympathiser about the challenges the AfD faced.
Asked if the AfD wanted to see more immigrants, he replied: "Yes."
"Because then things go better for the AfD. We can still shoot them all afterwards," he said. "Or gas them, whichever you like. I don't care either way!"
Die Zeit newspaper said it was shown the footage, which it said was filmed by Lisa Licentia, a right-wing YouTube personality who had decided to leave the far-right scene. Die Zeit said nothing indicated Lueth was joking.
German media reported on Monday that Lueth was dismissed as an employee of the party's parliamentary group. The group's spokesman was not immediately available to comment. Neither Lueth nor Licentia could immediately be reached.
Lueth was already suspended from his position as party spokesman in April, over an email in which he wrote that the word "fascist" was overused.
The AfD entered Germany's parliament in an election in 2017 and is now the largest party opposing Angela Merkel's government, a right-left grand coalition.
The far right party has been monitored by the security services, and other parties consider it beyond the pale. Party officials strongly deny that it has links to neo-Nazi groups.
"Nobody hates our beautiful country like the AfD," tweeted Konstantin Kuhle, domestic affairs spokesman of the pro-business Free Democrats.
The footage was due to be broadcast on Monday evening.
Under Adolf Hitler's Nazis, Germany murdered 6 million Jews during World War Two, killing many in gas chambers.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt)
