German nationalist party leader faces incitement probe

BERLIN – Prosecutors in Germany have opened an investigation into a leader of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party over comments about the German government’s commissioner for immigrant integration.

The news agency dpa reported that prosecutors in Muehlhausen said Sunday that Alexander Gauland is being investigated on suspicion of incitement. They had received complaints about comments that Gauland, one of the party’s co-leaders ahead of Germany’s Sept. 24 election, made at a rally.

Gauland said the commissioner, Aydan Ozoguz, could be “disposed of in Anatolia.” Ozoguz is German-born and has Turkish roots.

Gauland was also referring to comments in which Ozoguz said that “a specifically German culture is, beyond the language, simply not identifiable.”

Gauland said Sunday he didn’t yet know about the investigation but described the move as “completely misguided.”