The protests were sparked by the revelation that members of the far-right AfD party had attended a secret meeting with neo-Nazis to discuss mass deportations of migrants, refugees and German citizens of foreign origin deemed as having failed to integrate.
What do we know about the rightwing meeting?
The meeting took place in a hotel outside the city of Potsdam on 25 November, but did not come to light until 10 January, when it was revealed by the investigative outlet Correctiv. A central focus was a presentation by Martin Sellner, the Austrian leader of the ethnonationalism Identitarian movement, about the practicalities of carrying out mass deportations, referred to in far-right circles as “remigration” .
According to reports from participants shared with Correctiv’s journalists, business figures were present who donated money to the cause. An emphasis was placed on how to implement the deportation policy in the event that the AfD came to power. According to reports by Die Zeit and Spiegel on 18 January, the November meeting was in fact the seventh of its kind .
Who are the main figures in the controversy?
Of the various participants at November’s meeting identified by Correctiv, the most prominent is Sellner, considered a poster boy for young right-wing extremists across Europe.
This story is from the January 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the January 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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