German mayor suspended over ties to extremist movement

BERLIN – German authorities have suspended a Bavarian village mayor over her alleged support of an anti-government extremist group.

Bavaria’s state disciplinary authority suspended Bolsterlang mayor Monika Zeller on Tuesday and filed a suit at a Munich court seeking her dismissal as a civil servant.

Intelligence officials have said 16,500 Germans adhere to the Reich Citizens’ Movement, a loose grouping that refuses to acknowledge the authority of Germany’s post-war federal republic. Some 900 self-styled Reich Citizens are considered right-wing extremists.

The disciplinary authority said the mayor had helped arrange for a speaker from the movement to use a municipal venue for a lecture. It said that, in official correspondence, she had cited a 1913 citizenship law and said she was a citizen of the Kingdom of Bavaria as well as Germany.