The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has filed a criminal complaint against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after he claimed that the right-wing party is calling for ethnic cleansing. Merz made the remark in a heated parliamentary debate following the AfD’s resounding victory in the regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt.
The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, according to multiple polls, enjoying the support of 28% of respondents nationally. The right-wing opposition Eurosceptic party advocates tougher immigration controls and is also highly critical of the German government’s support for Ukraine, as well as sanctions against Russia.
In a statement on Thursday, the AfD parliamentary group – the largest opposition faction in the German parliament – accused Merz of defamation that goes beyond constitutionally protected free speech in parliament.
Speaking in the Bundestag on Wednesday, the chancellor claimed that in promoting ‘remigration’ the AfD is essentially advocating “ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color.”
Stephan Brandner, the secretary and legal counsel for the AfD parliamentary group, stated that with “his baseless and repugnant remarks” directed not only at the party itself, but also at millions of German citizens, Merz has “crossed a line… in a way that carries criminal implications.”
The concept of ‘remigration', which has been gaining traction among right-wing circles in Europe in recent years, is usually understood to mean the return of criminal and ‘non-assimilated’ immigrants and, more broadly, residents with a migrant background to their countries of origin.
Merz made the remark days after the AfD won Sunday’s regional elections in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote.The chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party finished a distant second, securing just over 17.2%.
Speaking at a press conference, Merz acknowledged that the Christian Democrats, who had for years dominated Saxony-Anhalt’s political landscape, had suffered the “most serious electoral defeat in decades.”
However, the chancellor refused to change course and vowed to “strengthen our political order and our firm anchoring in Europe,” while blaming the CDU’s dismal results on poor communication with the voters.
An INSA poll published by Bild in late August indicated that support for the governing Christian Democratic CDU/CSU bloc had dipped to 20% nationwide, with 78% of respondents dissatisfied with Merz’s coalition government.
Meanwhile, Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, said on Thursday that the party does not “categorically demonize the production of defense equipment, because we will naturally need the appropriate tools for the subsequent remigration and deportation drive.”
“This is also in the interest of internal security, our own stability, and state defense,” the politician stated in response to a journalist’s question that referenced recent media reports of negotiations between Israel’s Elbit Systems and regional authorities. The arms manufacturer is reportedly seeking to set up a plant in the town of Sangerhausen.
In recent months, multiple establishment political figures have called for the opposition AfD to be banned for presumably posing a threat to Germany’s constitutional order and democracy.
In late August, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Baden-Wurttemberg Governor Cem Ozdemir said that the AfD should be outlawed as it supposedly calls into question the “inviolability of human dignity” enshrined in the German constitution. The politicians who represent the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party, respectively, cited the right-wing party’s tough-on-immigration stance.
The AfD has already been placed under surveillance by the German federal authorities, which classify the party as a ‘suspected right-wing extremist’ entity. In several regions, local AfD chapters have been subjected to even wider monitoring.
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