The AfD (Alternative for Germany), the German far-right party which is on the rise in the polls until it appears as the second German political force behind the CDU but ahead of the social democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, could it be at the heart of a controversy? According to revelations from the German investigative media Correctiv, members of the party apparently participated last November in a sulfurous meeting, in the presence of entrepreneurs but especially Austrian neo-Nazis. The objective: to discuss a plan for the expulsion of foreigners or people of foreign origin from Germany on a very large scale.
At the heart of the controversy is Martin Sellner, the co-founder of the Austrian Identity Movement (IBÖ), who presented to around thirty people his project to send up to… two million people to North Africa, they are asylum seekers, foreigners or German citizens who would not be assimilated, says Correctiv.
Meeting confirmed by Martin Sellner himself: “Yes I was (at this meeting, editor’s note)”, Martin Sellner confirmed to AFP. “It was the end of November and I presented my book and my identity concept of remigration”, terminology disseminated by parties hostile to foreigners in Europe.
The AfD recognizes its presence, but denies sharing the ideas
According to the German media Correctiv, among the members of the AfD present at this meeting, there were among others the personal representative of the co-leader of the party Alice Weidel, Roland Hartwig, the deputy Gerrit Huy and the president of the regional parliamentary group from the AfD of Saxony-Anhalt (Eastern Germany), Ulrich Siegmund.
If the AfD admitted this Wednesday to having participated in this meeting, it denied supporting this idea of a mass expulsion of foreigners. In an email to AFP, the far-right party clarified that Roland Hartwig had “simply presented a social media project” during this meeting to which he had been invited. “He did not develop political strategies or carry Martin Sellner’s ideas on migration policy into the party. Furthermore, he was not aware of these ideas beforehand,” the AfD added.
The meeting was organized in a hotel by a former owner of the German bakery chain “Backwerk”, Hans Christian Limmer, as well as the right-wing extremist Gernot Mörig.
Key regional elections ahead
In a retweet of an article from the weekly Der SpiegeReporting on this meeting, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said: “This ideology is directed against the very foundation of our democracy. The dignity of the human being is inviolable. Of every human being.”
The AfD, under the observation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence service, is on the rise in the polls. In recent weeks, it has reached historically high levels of voting intention, particularly in the former East Germany, but now almost everywhere in the rest of the country. This party has taken advantage in recent months of the population’s feeling of insecurity resulting from a new influx of migrants into the country and the permanent bickering between the three parties of Olaf Scholz’s center-left coalition. He hopes to build on his successes in opinion polls in the European elections in June and in three regional elections: in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg.