Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have voted to expel a party member after he was found to have used a Nazi-era phrase banned in Germany, EDNews.net reports citing Aljazeera.
The unanimous move came on Friday, four years after the former member signed off a chat message in 2016 with the words "Sieg Heil", German for "hail victory", a chant used at Nazi rallies.
Using the phrase is illegal in modern Germany and can result in fines and other punishments.
The centre-right CDU's regional branch leaders in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt confirmed they had seen the note.
The branch leadership voted unanimously to expel the member on Friday, it said in a statement.
The man, whose name is known but will not be identified, then left the party on his own initiative, the statement said.