German town cancels Holocaust memorial service over AfD speech

Amid security concerns about a planned speech by a far-right politician on Saturday's Holocaust Remembrance Day, authorities in the eastern German town of Freital have cancelled the event.
"I see a danger that the safety of the event and the participants cannot be guaranteed," Mayor Uwe Rumberg said on Friday, ahead of the annual gathering at Freital's Holocaust memorial.
For years, the council's factions alternated speeches on January 27 in the town of almost 40,000 inhabitants in the south-western suburbs of Dresden.
This year, it would have been the turn of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which holds 8 of the 34 seats on the council.
The council voted to stick with that plan at a special meeting on Monday, at which Rumberg reminded that the AfD faction had been democratically elected, "whether everyone likes it or not."
Founded in 2013 on a largely Eurosceptic, anti-immigration platform, the party saw its popularity grow in recent years, mainly in eastern Germany, but now also in some western regions.
The AfD in Saxony is particularly outspoken and is categorized as "definitely right-wing extremist" by Germany's intelligence service.
In Freital, disruptive actions could not be ruled out if the memorial days went ahead, Rumberg said, referring to vague threats and verbal abuse directed at participants and town hall employees.
"Under these circumstances, a dignified and peaceful commemoration is not possible for me," the mayor added.
The plan to give the floor this year to the AfD was already sharply criticized by the International Auschwitz Committee.
The inclusion of an AfD politician is seen as shameless and macabre for Holocaust survivors, said Christoph Heubner, the committee's vice president.
Heubner also noted a history of AfD politicians making comments that trivialized and downplayed the crimes of Nazi Germany or attempted to portray the Nazi past as irrelevant.