German party rescinds invite to pundit Milo Yiannopoulos

BERLIN – The nationalist Alternative for Germany party has withdrawn an invitation for right-wing British writer Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at an event in parliament Saturday.

The party confirmed Friday that Yiannopoulos, who has been banned from Facebook and Twitter for breaching the sites’ policies on hate speech, won’t be taking part in a seminar for bloggers.

German media reported that Alternative for Germany lawmakers had a heated discussion Friday about Yiannopoulos’ past comments appearing to defend pedophilia.

Yiannopoulos lost his job at Breitbart News over the comments two years ago, has since said they were misguided.

Alternative for Germany had earlier failed to secure former White House strategist and ex-Breitbart chief Steve Bannon as a speaker at its conference.