All members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party have been expelled from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament, multiple employees of the group told dpa on Thursday.
Marco Zanni, the leader of the ID group, made a request to expel the nine AfD members after negative headlines about the party in recent weeks, including about the AfD's lead candidate for the European elections in June, Maximilian Krah.
The move comes after a "string of incidents involving Mr Maximilian Krah and - by extension - the German delegation of the Group" and their impact on the group's reputation, the text of the motion to expel the AfD read.
Krah came under significant public scrutiny following his comments that not all Schutzstaffel (SS) members were criminals. The SS was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.