“Ticket home” free of charge
Thuringian AfD deputy: “Remigration” is our goal
February 15, 2024, 12:46 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Revelations about a secret meeting at which right-wingers were said to have discussed “remigration” triggered a nationwide wave of protests against the AfD. But the party won’t let itself be dissuaded from the idea. At the political Ash Wednesday, the Thuringian AfD is now declaring “remigration” as its goal.
The Thuringian AfD wants fewer refugees in Germany and instead wants to stick to a so-called “remigration” of people. “And we will not let this dissuade us – no matter what is written and broadcast about it in this country,” said the Thuringian AfD deputy state party leader René Aust at his party’s political Ash Wednesday in Pfiffelbach in the Weimarer Land district 150 visitors. The AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, also campaigned for such measures at an appearance.
There has been a debate about the term “remigration” for weeks. When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress. The debate over the term was triggered by revelations about a meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam, in which AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union took part. The former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, spoke about it there. The report by the media company Correctiv triggered a nationwide wave of protests against right-wing extremists and the AfD.
At the end of January, the AfD explained in a position paper what it envisioned by “remigration”. The party explained that for them the term encompasses “all measures and incentives for the constitutional and legal repatriation of foreigners who are obliged to leave the country to their homeland”. However, on the day the Correctiv research was published, AfD leader Alice Weidel declared on Telegram that she not only wanted to deport foreigners, but also “revoked the passports” of criminals, menaces, terrorists and rapists.
In Pfiffelbach, Aust described “remigration” as “our goal”. “That means closing the initial reception center in Suhl, that means (…) the abolition of cash for refugees and the restriction of family reunification,” said Aust. He added: “The only thing we give you is a free ticket home.” The Thuringian AfD is classified and monitored by the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution as definitely right-wing extremist.