The AfD has renewed its accusation of a campaign against them. There is a “left-green class” behind this, said AfD politician Baumann Report from Berlin. The dismissal of the Weidel speaker had nothing to do with the right-wing meeting.
The first parliamentary managing director of the AfD parliamentary group, Bernd Baumann, suspects that “Correctiv” research into a conspiratorial meeting of right-wing extremists in November, in which AfD politicians also took part, was an “infamous campaign” against his party. This is being carried out by a “left-green class” of politicians and “large parts of the media,” he said Report from Berlin.
He cited his party’s current high polls as a motive, especially ahead of state elections in several eastern German states. The campaign is “the last attempt, the last stand” against the AfD. We will see in the elections what the voters make of it.
“Those who have a German passport are German”
He downplayed the significance of the November meeting. There are thousands of them. There is also no evidence that the words “deportation” or “expulsion” were used at the meeting. Baumann himself repeatedly used the catchphrase “remigration,” which is used in right-wing circles to trivialize expulsions and expulsions.
Baumann emphasized that this only meant the migration of foreigners who had no right to protection in Germany. These are currently around 300,000 people plus around 600,000 Syrians who have temporary protection status due to the civil war. “Everyone else is welcome.”
Nobody with a German passport has to worry. “Anyone who has a German passport is a German.”
Hartwig’s dismissal is said to have had other reasons
The AfD’s separation from party leader Alice Weidel’s personal advisor, Roland Hartwig, is also not related to the meeting. This was rather due to “personal communication relationships”. There had already been “problems” before.
Hartwig had taken part in the Potsdam meeting. Shortly after his participation became known, the AfD separated from him without giving any reasons.
The Correctiv research center first reported on the meeting of right-wing extremists on November 25th, in which AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the Values Union took part in Potsdam. The former head of the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he spoke about “remigration” at the meeting.