A local councillor from the south-western German city of Baden-Baden has resigned from the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) after being accused of daubing Nazi swastikas on cars with Ukrainian licence plates.

The public prosecutor’s office in Baden-Baden had announced at the beginning of the week – without giving a name – that a councillor was suspected of defacing two cars with Ukrainian licence plates with the Nazi symbol and also writing the words “Fuck UA” in large letters on the vehicles.

The AfD faction in Baden-Baden announced that Martin Kühne had resigned from the party and his position as councillor.

“This closes the case for us,” the AfD party’s co-chair Markus Frohnmaier told dpa on Wednesday evening, after Kühne’s resignation.

Frohnmaier told dpa that people who did not act in the interests of the party had to leave it. He said the matter had been settled amicably at the district level, and the state-level party association had not intervened.

Vandals daubed swastikas and anti-migrant slogans on Muslim and Jewish graves over the weekend in western Austria.

The perpetrators targeted the graves and building of a Jewish cemetery in the town of Hohenems, near the Swiss border. Police sources confirmed that swastikas appeared on its walls.

Swastikas and racist graffiti also appeared at a Muslim cemetery in the nearby municipality of Altach.

Police are linking this case to an earlier spate of vandalism against a refugee hostel and Jewish museum two weeks ago. Swastikas appeared on walls of the Jewish district, including the Jewish museum. The phrase “Stop the asylum flood” appeared on a refugee hostel.

Hohenems mayor, Richard Amman, had recently received a letter from far-right extremists. He is also in a legal battle over the disputed mayoral elections with a candidate from the far-right Freedom Party (FPO). The FPO had claimed victory with 43.3 per cent; but a runoff secured Amman’s election with the smallest of margins.

Back in Feburary, swastikas were daubed on the walls of a Vienna mosque,  as Austria prepared for its official Pegida-inspired march. Other recent incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitsm in Austria included an assault on two Jewish men, which included shouts of “Scheissjuden” (“Shitty Jews”).

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