A group of AfD, value unionists and right-wing extremists are said to have conspired to create a “master plan for mass deportation”, including Martin Sellner. The “Identitarians” mastermind has been working for years to bring right-wing extremist ideas into the center of society. It’s difficult to get to grips with him.
In November, several high-ranking members of the AfD, wealthy entrepreneurs and other figures from the right-wing extremist spectrum are said to have discussed a “master plan” for mass deportations from Germany at a secret meeting in a Potsdam hotel, the research network “Correctiv” reported. The alleged ringleader of the plan for mass “remigration” is Martin Sellner from Austria, who is well known in the right-wing scene.
Sellner confirmed at the request of star both his participation in the meeting and his speech with the plan to “reverse the settlement of foreigners.” Who is this activist who always causes a stir with his “Identitarian Movement” (IB)?
Martin Sellner came to the attention of the police as a teenager
Sellner was born in 1989 and grew up near Vienna. He made his first contacts with the right-wing extremist scene in his youth. He first came to police attention in 2006 when he put swastika stickers on a synagogue. He explained to the magazine “Zeit Campus” that he was a neo-Nazi until 2011 and later described this time as a “youthful sin.”
His political socialization was significantly influenced by the Holocaust denier Gottfried Küssel and later by the successful student association “Wiener Burschenschaft Olympia”. He completed his philosophy studies in Vienna with a bachelor’s degree and dropped out of further law studies prematurely.
Sellner early on targeted a very young target group for his sometimes inhumane views. He understood that new ways were needed to anchor right-wing extremist ideas among young people; that the relevant parties were no longer caught, had gathered dust.
From 2012 he was instrumental in founding the Identitarian Movement in Austria. The approach: activism from the right. The IB was based on the actions of the environmental movement and gave its extremist messages a modern, even youthful touch. The French “Bloc Identitaire” and the Italian neo-fascist movement “CasaPound” served as models. No matter how different the groups may seem, their strategy unites them all: the “pre-political space” is to be occupied through activist actions, posts on social networks and demonstrations.
In other words: Right-wing extremism should be socially acceptable and the boundaries of what can be said should be pushed further and further. The IB and Sellner propagate that they want to preserve the ethnic or, alternatively, European culture or “race” and defend it from an alleged threat from other ethnic groups.
At the request of star Sellner also confirms that at the meeting in Potsdam he suggested building a right-wing extremist counter-public with the help of influencers. First of all, the “climate of opinion” for the “decade project” of remigration must be changed.
The Identitarian movement caught on with many young people in German-speaking countries
Within a few years, the IB was able to win over hundreds of mostly young supporters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sellner became the New Right’s poster boy, also because he outwardly embodies what the group wants to convey: modern lifestyles and “traditional values” do not have to be mutually exclusive. With a youthful style, undercut and often with distinctive glasses, Sellner lectures at events, demonstrations and especially on social networks in pseudo-intellectual terms about what traditional values supposedly mean for the IB.
Age-old fascist, racist and xenophobic slogans are given a new coat of paint in passing: Sellner turns a clumsy “foreigner out!” the demand for “remigration”, a racial theory with a neo-Nazi model becomes “ethnopluralism”. Every culture and every ethnic group is fine the way it is – but please stay where it comes from. The boat is full of rhetoric without sounding too much like a dirty regular. Racism in hipster garb.
On star-Inquiry, Sellner confirmed his proposal to build a “model city” in North Africa in order to “move” people there. There are opportunities for training and sport there, and all those who support refugees can also go there, says Sellner. An internment camp for everyone who doesn’t fit into his worldview.
The IB sees itself in constant resistance to the alleged “Great Reset”. A conspiracy story according to which the European population is to be replaced by predominantly Arab and African ethnic groups and their culture is to be destroyed in the process.
Connections to neo-Nazis, lateral thinkers and the AfD
From 2015 onwards, the IB got a boost, with Sellner as spokesman and leading figure. In parallel to taking part in demonstrations by the Pegida movement, for example, the Identitarians relied on activist actions and thus on the power of images on the Internet. In 2016, some members occupied the Brandenburg Gate for a few minutes and unfurled banners reading “Remigration now” and “Fortress Europe”.
In 2017, the group chartered a boat with the inscription “Defend Europe” and tried to prevent refugees from reaching Europe on the Mediterranean. There were also efforts to interfere with NGO boats rescuing people in distress at sea. The IB then distributed videos of the action on the Internet. Sellner is said to have been one of the initiators of the campaign.
As the migration debate died down in the following years, the IB also became quieter. The movement and especially its figurehead fell into disrepute when it became public that Sellner was in contact with the Christchurch attacker and who had donated money to him before his attack. Since then, the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been examining a ban on IB in Austria.
It was only with the burgeoning Corona demonstrations by the lateral thinkers that Sellner and other members found their way back into a protest milieu. Meanwhile, Sellner himself fantasized about a connection between the spread of the virus and migration, as the “Tagesspiegel” reported. Accordingly, newcomers would not adhere to the protective measures. The members apparently did not recognize the irony that the IB itself took part in protests against any measures.
But even outside the protest milieu, Martin Sellner and other members of the IB are well connected in right-wing structures. Since 2015, Sellner has been active in the think tank “Institute for State Policy” run by publisher Götz Kubitschek, which, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt, is considered to be “certainly right-wing extremist”. Sellner also publishes books in his own publishing house, such as the recently published “Regime Change from the Right. A Strategic Sketch”.
Further overlaps can be found between the IB, the right-wing extremist association “One Percent” and in particular the “Junge Alternative”, the youth association of the AfD.
Sellner acts as a puppet master. He has built bridges between the young Identitarian movement, extremist think tanks and the parliamentary right. More than ever, it is seen as a hope for the future of right-wing extremist movements – or as a threat to democracy and the rule of law.
Sources: “Time Campus”, “Tagesspiegel”, SWR documentation, “corrective”