AfD politicians are said to have planned mass expulsions from Germany with neo-Nazis

AfD politicians, neo-Nazis and entrepreneurs are said to have met in November 2023 to discuss the expulsion of millions of people from Germany. This is shown by a report published on Wednesday by the research network “Corrective“.

Accordingly, Martin Sellner, long-time spokesman for Austria’s right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement”, presented a corresponding plan at the secret meeting – including the deportation of German citizens with a migration background. According to the research, high-ranking AfD representatives also took part in the meeting.

The meeting is said to have taken place at the end of November in a hotel near Potsdam. According to the “Correctiv” research, several politicians from the AfD took part, including party leader Alice Weidel’s personal advisor, Roland Hartwig, and the spokesman for the Potsdam AfD parliamentary group, Tim Krause.

The AfD confirmed the participation of personal advisor Weidel. Hartwig “only presented a social media project upon invitation” at the meeting, the party announced on Wednesday. He neither developed political strategies there nor “brought Sellner’s ideas on migration policy into the party.” He also had “no knowledge” of these ideas beforehand.

The deputy Potsdam AfD district chairman Tim Krause said on DPA in response to the reports that the aim was to “restore migration law to its rights and validity”. Krause, who is also spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group, said: “It was a purely private event.” He didn’t hear Sellner’s lecture because he only took part in the early evening. “The Identitarian Movement is on the AfD’s incompatibility list for good reason,” said Krause. But he was in contact with Sellner that evening because he prefers to talk to people rather than about them.

Sellner is said to have presented a master plan for “remigration” at the meeting. According to the research, he listed who should leave Germany: asylum seekers, foreigners with the right to remain and “unassimilated citizens.” Sellner, who is considered one of the leading figures in the European right-wing extremist scene, is said to have proposed “tailor-made laws” to implement the plan. According to “Correctiv”, he is also said to have spoken of an area in North Africa with space for up to two million people where the deportees could live. Anyone who supports refugees could also go there.

According to research, the guests present, including those from the AfD, did not raise any objections to the plans at the meeting.

A spokesman for the party told the German Press Agency in response to the research: “The AfD will not change its stance on immigration policy, which can be found in the party program, because of an individual opinion of a speaker at a meeting that was not an AfD event .” The Brandendburg AfD federal representative, René Springer, commented on “X” on Wednesday: We will return foreigners to their homeland. Millions of times.” This is “not a secret plan.”

The editor-in-chief of “Correktiv”, Justus von Daniels, emphasized on Wednesday on rbb24 Inforadio that the plans included not only foreigners, but also German citizens who do not fit into a nationalist worldview. The networking between AfD politicians and right-wing radicals is extremely problematic, according to von Daniels. If this is systematic, the question arises as to whether the party stands on the basis of the Basic Law.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case. The party filed a lawsuit against it. A decision on this from the Higher Administrative Court in Münster is expected at the end of February. “As part of the processing of suspected cases, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is monitoring the further development of the AfD very closely,” said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior. “Possible meetings with actors from the right-wing extremist spectrum are also included.”

The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution also says it is following reports about the meeting. The company’s own findings would be compared with the published research, said the spokesman for the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior, Martin Burmeister, to the German Press Agency on Wednesday. The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the AfD regional association as a suspected right-wing extremist case, and the Junge Alternative as a proven right-wing extremist effort.

On Wednesday, Potsdam Mayor Mike Schubert called for “urgent clarity about the allegations” against the Potsdam guesthouse where the meeting is said to have taken place. He therefore invited the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to the upcoming main committee meeting in order to classify the situation in the non-public part.

“Meetings, discussions, conferences with the aim of ‘ethnic cleansing’ have already taken place before – not far away. Such plans must be uncovered, outlawed and, if confirmed, prosecuted,” said Schubert. “In Potsdam there is no room for conspiratorial network meetings in which anti-democratic, racist ideas are hatched.”

Brandenburg’s Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher (Greens), who is also Deputy Prime Minister, wrote on the X portal: “For everyone who believes that the AfD can be held accountable: the nationwide right-wing front is meeting in Potsdam.”

Left-wing faction leader Sebastian Walter reiterated the demand for an AfD ban. “A ban on the AfD is not only justified, but an imperative to protect our democracy.” Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) recently rejected proceedings to ban the AfD.

Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, January 10, 2024, 1:3 p.m0 o’clock