Right-wing extremism

Another meeting with Sellner: pressure on AfD increases

Martin Sellner

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Following the Potsdam meeting of radical right-wingers on the topic of "remigration", another event with the former head of the far-right Identitarian movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, is now causing a stir. The event, which took place before the Potsdam event, was also attended by AfD politicians. Other parties are now demanding clarification.

As the AfD confirmed on Wednesday, two members of the Bavarian state parliament took part in an event with Sellner in Swabia. The MPs went to the meeting in Dasing, near Augsburg, "personally without being commissioned by the parliamentary group or its knowledge". "The matter will initially be dealt with internally," said an AfD spokesperson. The parliamentary group only found out about the event and the participation through the reporting. 

Söder: "Clear stance against right-wing extremism"
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) announced that the Dasingen meeting would have to be closely examined by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and discussed in the state parliament. "The new revelations about a radical #secretmeeting in Swabia are extremely worrying. These intolerable events are an attack on democracy and peaceful coexistence in our country," he wrote on the platform X (formerly Twitter). "The #AfD state parliamentary group is looking more and more like the most radical bloc within the AfD." Söder demanded that anyone who had demonstrably taken part in the meeting be expelled from the parliamentary group.

Sellner himself had stated that the event on November 11 was "not mainly about the idea of remigration". He had presented a book of his own. He did not give details of the participants. Bavaria's Office for the Protection of the Constitution became aware of the meeting through several internet publications. The authority stated that "over 60 predominantly young people took part" in the event in Dasing (Aichach-Friedberg district) according to Sellner's statements in the online posts.

Sellner had referred to this meeting as the "Swabian Congress in the Augsburg area", explained a spokesperson for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. "Another internet post shows two Bavarian AfD members of the state parliament at the same venue on the same day, so it must be concluded that they attended the event with Sellner," explained the spokesperson for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Martin Sellner

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Katharina Schulze, leader of the Green parliamentary group in the state parliament, demanded clarification from Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) regarding the authorities' findings on the events in Dasing and the actors involved. "Bit by bit, the AfD continues to expose its true face. It is making plans to deport hundreds of thousands of Germans, cultivating its close ties to the far-right Identitarian movement and unabashedly courting neo-Nazi hardliners," said Schulze.

Ban proceedings against AfD demanded
Bavaria's SPD state chairman Florian von Brunn called for tougher action against the AfD by the state's Office for the Protection of the Constitution. "These are no longer the outliers of individual functionaries, this is the general anti-constitutional attitude of the AfD," he said. "We need a ban procedure against the new Nazis from the AfD."

Demonstrations against right-wing extremism
A report by the Correctiv research center about a meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam on 25 November with some AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Werteunion had led to numerous demonstrations against right-wing extremism across Germany in recent weeks.

According to Sellner himself, he had spoken about "remigration" in Potsdam. When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that a large number of people of foreign origin should leave the country - even under duress.