Suspicion of incitement

Police investigate deportation song at AfD election party

(Bild: APA/AFP/John MACDOUGALL)

After AfD supporters sang a song about deportations at the Brandenburg AfD election party in Potsdam on Sunday, the German police are now investigating the suspicion of incitement to hatred. The AfD leadership considers the deportation song to be unproblematic.

The background to this is a corresponding complaint, the police in Potsdam announced. The police became aware of the song through a published video. "As a result, a corresponding complaint was made and the matter is now being investigated," it said.

The Green Party politician Volker Beck had written on Portal X that he had filed a complaint against the accusation of incitement to hatred. Several young AfD supporters had sung a song on the subject of deportations on Sunday evening.

To the tune of the song "Das geht ab. We'll party all night" by the band Die Atzen, they sang: "Hey, it's going down, we'll deport them all, deport them all". They also held up a board with the words "Deport millions of them" (see video in the tweet below).

The band responded to the case with a post on Instagram. "The only ones allowed to rewrite our song are the Hertha BSC Ostkurve and SpongeBob." (see post below). The Berlin-based rappers could not be reached for further comment.

Fans of second-division soccer club Hertha BSC have rewritten the song as "Hey, that's going down, we're going to win the championship". There is also a version of the song by the cartoon character SpongeBob.

Party leadership sees the song as unproblematic
The AfD leadership sees the deportation song as unproblematic. The chairman of the AfD-Brandenburg, René Springer, said that this behavior by members of the Junge Alternative was relatively harmless compared to the demands of the SPD party youth on abortion. The song was part of the Junge Alternative youth organization's election campaign.

Federal chairman Tino Chrupalla said: "We are talking about the youth here. (...) And they also have a right to celebrate exuberantly." Hans-Christoph Berndt, the leading AfD candidate in Brandenburg, said: "The real scandal is the everyday crime and violence in Germany and not the singing of a song."