Europe
Far-right party denies backing deportation of
'unassimilated' Germans
By Thomas
Escritt and Andreas Rinke
January 10,
20244:16 PM GMT+1Updated 18 hours ago
Summary
AfD representatives reported to meet neo-Nazi
influencers
Plan aired to 'remigrate' any 'unassimilated' people -
media
Increasingly popular party denies any illegal
intentions
BERLIN, Jan
10 (Reuters) - The far-right opposition party Alternative for Germany said on
Wednesday it had no plans to pursue deportation of "unassimilated"
immigrants with passports if it wins power, after investigative portal
Correctiv said that was aired at a meeting.
Correctiv
said Roland Hartwig, personal assistant to AfD leader Alice Weidel, and Ulrich
Siegmund, party leader in Saxony Anhalt state, met neo-Nazi influencers and
wealthy businessmen late last year in a hotel near Berlin.
At the
meeting, Martin Sellner, an Austrian leader of the far-right Identitarian
Movement, had proposed a project of "remigration", whereby some
immigrants could be forced to leave Germany - even if they had citizenship.
Also
floated was an idea for deportees to be sent to a "model state" in
North Africa, Correctiv said, citing hidden camera footage, attendees and
reporters staking out the hotel.
The AfD
confirmed that Hartwig was present at the meeting but said that the reported
proposals were not party policy. Siegmund did not immediately reply to a
request for comment.
"The
AfD won't change its position on immigration policy because of a single opinion
at a non-AfD meeting," the party told Reuters.
Sellner
confirmed he was at the meeting but denied proposing anything illegal. "I
made very clear that no distinctions can be made between citizens - that there
can be no second-class citizens - and that all remigration measures have to be
legal," he told Reuters in an e-mail.
"Unassmilated
citizens like Islamists, gangsters and welfare cheats should be pushed to adapt
through a policy of standards and assimilation," he added, saying that
could include incentives for voluntary return.
AFD SURGES IN POLLS
Correctiv
said Hartwig told participants the party was prepared to contribute financially
to an idea floated at the meeting for an agency for right-wing influencers to
help mould youth opinion ahead of elections to the European Parliament and
regional assemblies later this year. The AfD did not immediately respond to a
request to comment on this.
The
official manifesto of the AfD, which is surging in opinion polls, seeks faster
deportations of declined asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.
The party
is vying with the opposition conservatives for first place in some polls,
profiting from disillusionment at Chancellor Olaf Scholz's fractious
coalition's economic struggles.
But the AfD
is under investigation in several states and at risk of being declared
extremist, a move that could lead to it being banned. The party denies racism.
Correctiv
named entrepreneur Hans Christian Limmer, part owner of the snackbar chain Hans
im Glueck, as one of the people who convened the meeting.
"I had
no role in the organisation or planning," he said in an email to Reuters.
However,
the chain said its owners had accepted his offer to end involvement in the firm
to avoid negative fallout.
Alexander
von Bismarck, a descendent of Germany's 19th century founding chancellor, was
also named by Correctiv as a participant. He did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
The Federal
Office for the Protection of the Constitution declined comment on Correctiv's
report.
Reporting
by Andreas Rinke, Sarah Marsh and Thomas Escritt; editing by Philippa Fletcher
and Andrew Cawthorne
Thomas
Escritt
Thomson
Reuters
Berlin
correspondent who has investigated anti-vaxxers and COVID treatment practices,
reported on refugee camps and covered warlords' trials in The Hague. Earlier,
he covered Eastern Europe for the Financial Times. He speaks Hungarian, German,
French and Dutch.
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