The Potsdam secret meeting with AfD participation, at which plans to expel millions of people are said to have been discussed, is causing outrage across all parties. Chancellor Scholz spoke of a “case for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reacted with clear words to the revelation of a secret meeting of high-ranking AfD politicians, neo-Nazis and entrepreneurs at which plans to expel millions of people from Germany were said to have been discussed. “Anyone who goes against our free, democratic basic order is a case for our Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the judiciary,” Scholz wrote on Platform X. “The fact that we learn from history is not just lip service,” he emphasized.
“Democrats must stand together,” Scholz continued. “We will not allow anyone to differentiate the ‘we’ in our country based on whether or not someone has an immigrant background.” The Chancellor added: “We protect everyone – regardless of origin, skin color or how uncomfortable someone is for fanatics with assimilation fantasies.”
Right-wing extremists at the meeting
The research network “Correctiv” reported on the meeting in November 2023 in Potsdam, at which some radical theses on migration policy were said to have been discussed. The participants included several AfD politicians such as Roland Hartwig, advisor to party and parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel, as well as the Potsdam AfD district chairman Tim Krause. Two CDU members were also present, members of the Union of Values.
Martin Sellner, head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement (IB) in Austria in recent years, presented ideas there, among other things, on how to ensure that more foreigners leave Germany and how people with a history of immigration could be pushed to assimilate.
Also among those present was the lawyer Ulrich Vosgerau, who says he is a CDU member. He defended his well-known participation in the meeting: “I had heard that Martin Sellner personally was a pleasant guy who didn’t seem fanatical. So I was happy to take the opportunity to get to know him personally.” According to the lawyer, it must be possible to speak in private with people who appear in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution report.
Faeser also warns against “intellectual arsonists”
The research caused excitement, indignation and discussions. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned against networking enemies of the constitution with the AfD. “We can now see again that it is necessary and right for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to monitor very closely what contacts there are in the right-wing extremist spectrum, how enemies of the constitution network with AfD representatives and what inhumane ideologies are propagated there,” she told the magazine “Star”.
The minister continued that Germany is a “defensive democracy” that does not accept that right-wing extremists are making racist exclusion plans. Not only violent right-wing extremists are dangerous, but also intellectual arsonists who prepare the ground for violence.
Dürr: Parallels to National Socialism
The FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr sees parallels to National Socialism in the plans discussed at the meeting. “The plans to expel millions of people are reminiscent of the darkest chapter in German history,” he wrote on X. The research shows “that the AfD deeply rejects democracy and our free basic order.”
SPD general secretary Kevin Kühnert and Green party leader Britta Haßelmann called on citizens to get involved against the AfD. “I appeal to everyone who doesn’t want history to repeat itself: show your colors and don’t leave the field to misanthropes,” Kühnert told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Haßelmann warned on
Thierse promotes AfDProhibition procedure
Former Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse called for examining a ban on the AfD despite all the risks. If the Office for the Protection of the Constitution defines the AfD as a largely right-wing extremist party, “the state must monitor it closely and examine a possible ban,” the SPD politician told the “Tagesspiegel.” He did point out: “Banning a party has high hurdles and any process to do so would be exploited by the AfD for propaganda purposes. However, the sword of Damocles of a ban should remain hanging over the AfD.”
The CDU and the Left Party had also already expressed concern.