- The head of strategy for the Junge SVP, Sarah Regez, said she did not know the speakers at an event with the Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner in May 2023.
- At that time she was active among those criticizing the measures and took part in a political event almost every evening.
- Regez said this in an interview with the “Sonntagszeitung”.
She was taken to the event with Sellner by a colleague “without knowing what it was about.” “The name Sellner was completely unknown to me at the time,” Regez continued. She also has no idea who organized the event. She only remembers that she found the first presentation very boring and that the speakers obviously didn’t leave a lasting impression on her.
Regez was “completely surprised”
She only recently heard from Sellner when the media reported on the canceled event with him in Aargau. That’s why she was “completely surprised” when “Sonntagsblick” wrote that she had attended an event with him.
Legend:
Sarah Regez on the show “Rec.” on the topic of gender.
SRF
In mid-March, the Aargau cantonal police prevented a presentation by the right-wing extremist Sellner. “Young Tat” invited people to the event. The Aargau section of the JSVP initially expressed solidarity with Sellner, but later distanced itself from right-wing extremist positions.
Secret meeting “complete nonsense”
On March 31, “Sonntagsblick” reported that Regez had taken part in a secret meeting with Sellner in May 2023, at which members of the right-wing extremist group “Junge Tat” were also present. Six other cantonal JSVP sections then called on Regez to suspend her position as head of strategy.
The term “secret meeting” is “complete nonsense,” explained the SVP young politician in an interview. Everyone should know that she was at this and many other events. One should not conclude from this that she automatically shares the opinion of the speakers.
In her opinion, the media reporting is “an orchestrated campaign” against the Young SVP, against her partner, JSVP President Nils Fiechter, and her. “A non-event” is used as an opportunity “to shoot from all sides at a democratically legitimate party”.
Sellner wants to deport foreigners
Martin Sellner was formerly the head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria and is now banned from entering Germany. According to his new book with the same title, what he means by remigration is that people with foreign roots have to leave Germany en masse, including people with a German passport and also under duress.
Regez said she also used the word in her tweets. But she understands the term to have the “original semantic” meaning “return migration”. And so he stands for everything that the SVP has always demanded: that criminal and illegal migrants be deported and that mass immigration and deportation initiatives must be consistently implemented.