FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany — Germany’s far-right AfD party on Sunday said it had suspended a longtime spokesman, reportedly after he described himself as a fascist and praised his “Aryan grandfather.”

Die Zeit newspaper wrote that Christian Lueth was relieved of his duties at the request of senior party figure Alexander Gauland following an internal review.

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conference to launch the party's election manifesto in Berlin, March 9, 2017. (Odd ANDERSEN/AFP)

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany — Germany’s far-right AfD party on Sunday said it had suspended a longtime spokesman, reportedly after he described himself as a fascist and praised his “Aryan grandfather.”

Die Zeit newspaper wrote that Christian Lueth was relieved of his duties at the request of senior party figure Alexander Gauland following an internal review.

“He has been suspended,” a spokesman for the AfD’s parliamentary group confirmed to AFP.

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Lueth had allegedly “repeatedly described himself as a fascist and referred to his grandfather’s Aryan lineage,” the paper wrote in its online edition, citing party sources.

Lueth’s grandfather was a submarine commander during World War II and received an Iron Cross from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the newspaper said.

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla confirmed the suspension to Der Spiegel weekly, but declined to comment on the reason.

Spiegel said Lueth had not been officially sacked yet, “but it doesn’t look good.”

Lueth, 43, has been with the party since its early days as an anti-euro outfit in 2013 and had cultivated close ties to top party figures like Gauland.

Lueth started out as an AfD spokesperson before becoming the main spokesman for its parliamentary group when the party entered the national Bundestag in 2017.

Spiegel said Lueth apparently made the controversial comments in an online chat with a woman who is not an AfD member.