Far-right AfD politicians spoke with neo-Nazis about a plan to expel millions of immigrants from Germany

High-ranking politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), currently second in voting intentions after the Christian Democrats CDU, met secretly with well-known neo-Nazis and businessmen to discuss a “master plan” to expel millions of people from Germany. immigrants. The news, an exclusive from the Correctiv research portalhas caused stupor and indignation among the political class, which is beginning to consider the need to try to outlaw this party that has 78 deputies in the Bundestag and, according to polls, would win the regional elections to be held next fall in three states. from eastern German.

The party's senior officials, including a direct collaborator of the party's co-president, Alice Weidel, met in November in a hotel near Potsdam to talk about the mass expulsion of people of immigrant origin, including those who were naturalized Germans, according to Correctiv research, widely cited by all the major media outlets in the country.

“The chances of returning our country to a normal and healthy course are greater than ever,” reads the letter of invitation to the meeting. The text indicates that at the meeting the well-known far-right Martin Sellner would present to the attendees “a strategy, in the sense of a master plan” consisting of the “re-emigration” of immigrants and German citizens of migrant origin, which would affect millions of people. . The plan could be carried out in the event that the AfD, which these days supports protests in the German countryside against the cuts by Olaf Scholz's government, comes to power at some point. According to Correctiv, the members of the formation present at the meeting agreed with the plan.

Ulrich Siegmund, leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, assured that it is necessary for his land becomes “as unattractive as possible for this clientele to live.” Gerrit Huy, a member of the Bundestag, stated that she had been pursuing the same objective for some time and that when she joined the party she had already presented a “return emigration” plan. The fact that Roland Hartwig, Weidel's personal advisor, was present at the meeting, demonstrates, according to analysts, that far-right ideas reach the top of the party's federal organization.

The formation has not denied the existence of the meeting or the attendance of its members, but assures in a statement that it does not approve the content of the plan. In its political programs, the AfD advocates a restrictive immigration policy and accuses mass immigration of having lowered wages and increased insecurity in Germany. According to the Correctiv investigation, which accessed what was discussed at the hotel, Hartwig promised to convey the plans to the party leadership.

Pan-European New Right

Martin Sellner, the person in charge of presenting the “master plan”, is a key figure of the so-called pan-European New Right. He is part of the extremist Identitarian Movement, of whose Austrian branch he was the leader, and which opposes multicultural societies and defends the conspiracy theory of a “great replacement” to replace the white population of Europe with people from Africa and Middle East. In the UK he has Entry banned since 2019. The Austrian police have investigated him for his possible link with the supremacist author of the Christchurch massacre, in New Zealand, which in 2019 killed 50 Muslims.

The meeting will intensify a debate that has been simmering in recent weeks over whether the AfD should be outlawed amid growing concerns that it represents a threat to German democracy. The party has already been formally classified as “extremist” in three federal states and some of its members are being investigated for statements that could be illegal. Although the conservative opposition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) rules out any form of collaboration with AfD, some of its members also participated in the meeting, according to Correctiv. These are two members who belong to the most right wing of the party, called the Union of Values ​​(Werte Union).

Potential donors for the mass deportation plan also attended the meeting, which includes the transfer of up to two million people to some state in North Africa. The former co-owner of the Backwerk bakery chain, Hans Christian Limmer, currently a partner in the Hans im Glück restaurant franchises, is one of them. After the information became known, the company has distanced itself from him: “We are surprised and dismayed by the accusations that one of our co-owners invited to an event in which right-wing radicals called for the re-emigration of millions of people, including German citizens,” assures it's a statement.

Outlawing a political party is very difficult in Germany. It has not happened since 1956, when the German Communist Party (KPD) was banned. In the last 20 years, the Constitutional Court has twice decided whether the NPD—the far-right party heir to National Socialism—should be banned, only to conclude that it should not, but for a reason unrelated to ideology: in 2017 it considered it so irrelevant and with such little chance of gaining followers that it was not worth making such a radical decision in a democracy. Now the AfD leads the polls in the eastern states and at the federal level, polls attribute it to up to 22% of the votes if early elections are held.

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