The press revealed at the beginning of January that a project for “remigration” to North Africa of foreigners or people with immigrant backgrounds had been discussed between elected officials from the AfD and an Austrian identity activist. Since then, daily demonstrations have shaken the country and voices are growing in favor of banning the party.
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Crowds march in the streets in Germany. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated, Saturday January 20 and Sunday January 21, in many cities (Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne…), but also in much smaller localities, against the party far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany in French).
At issue: the revelation by the press, at the beginning of January, of a meeting of extremists in Potsdam, where a plan for the mass expulsion of foreigners or people of foreign origin was discussed in the presence of party officials. The affair has relaunched the debate on a possible ban on the far-right party, increasingly better placed in the polls.
A plan for mass expulsion of people
On January 10, an article from the German investigative media Correctiv (of which a French translation is available on Mediapart) reveals the holding, at the end of November, of a meeting “secret” in a hotel in Potsdam, near Berlin. Members of the AfD, party donors and figures of the radical identity movement, such as the Austrian Martin Sellner, took part in this meeting. The latter unveiled a plan to expel two million people of foreign origin in North Africa – including naturalized citizens considered to be “not assimilated”. The people “supporting refugees” were also affected, according to Correctiv.
The project “is reminiscent of the National Socialists’ plan to deport four million Jews to the island of Madagascar in 1940”, underlines Correctiv. The Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, considered that this meeting recalled “the horrible Wannsee conference”, where the Nazis planned the extermination of European Jews in 1942. And this, even though the Potsdam meeting was held just eight kilometers from the Wannsee conference venue.
“The parallel seems obvious”estimates Hélène Miard-Delacroix, professor of history and civilization of contemporary Germany at Sorbonne University, to France Culture. “The idea behind it is that there would be a pure German people, which is not well defined, but which considers that any arrival of foreign people would be at the origin of the problems that Germany is currently experiencing.”
AfD downplays support for project
For its part, the far-right anti-immigration party confirmed the presence at the meeting of certain members of the radical wing of the movement. But the AfD clarified that they were present in a personal capacity, and denied adhering to the project led by Martin Sellner. However, the term “remigration” is used by the party, and appears in its program for the European elections.
After the Correctiv revelations, the party even published visuals on X defending its idea and featuring images of planes under slogans such as “Remigration is inevitable”. “We will bring foreigners back to their country. Millions of times. This is not a ‘secret plan’. It is a promise”also wrote on AfD MP René Springer.
Important daily demonstrations
This revelation shook Germany, as the AfD continues to advance in the polls. The party could obtain at least 20% of the vote in the European elections in less than six months. And he is credited with more than 30% of the votes eight months before three important regional elections in the east of the country, in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg.
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Since then, tens of thousands of people have demonstrated daily in dozens of German cities, including the Social Democratic Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock. Politicians, religious representatives and coaches from the Bundesliga, the German football championship, also called on the population to mobilize against the AfD, believing that any plan to expel people of foreign origin was an attack on democracy.
A debate around banning the AfD
Voices calling for a ban on the AfD are increasing. A petition to this effect has obtained more than 700,000 supports. Christian Democratic (CDU) MP Marco Wanderwitz has started a campaign to convince his colleagues – the first step in the ban process consists of collecting the signatures of 5% of those elected to Parliament. “The state has a duty to study a possible ban on the AfD”also estimated Wolfgang Thierse, former social-democrat president of the Bundestag.
In 2017, the German Constitutional Court opposed the banning of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD), considering “that this party was very hostile to the Constitution by its program and its objectives”, but “that [son] small number [de partisans] did not constitute a danger”, notes researcher Hélène Miard-Delacroix from France Culture. Conversely, the AfD has broad support.
But the launch of the ban procedure – very long and complicated – is viewed with skepticism by most observers, who fear that failure would further fuel the popularity of the AfD. “The best way to fight extremism is in politics, not in the courts”said the leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz. For Carsten Schneider, member of the Scholz government, “wanting to ban a party that does not suit us, but is permanently established at a high level in the polls, can only create a reflex of solidarity towards it”. “If it is proven that a party wants to transform the country into a fascist state, it must be banned, regardless of its strength.”nevertheless considered the environmentalist vice-chancellor Robert Habeck in an interview with the magazine Stern.