German far-right party assailed over report of extremist meeting

Germany’s governing parties have assailed a resurgent far-right opposition party over a report that extremists recently met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, which has led to a string of prote...

BERLIN -- Germany's governing parties assailed a resurgent far-right opposition party on Thursday over a report that extremists recently met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, which has led to a string of protests in recent days.

Media outlet Correctiv last week reported on the alleged far-right meeting in November, which it said was attended by figures from the extremist Identitarian Movement and from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD. A prominent member of the Identitarian Movement, Austrian citizen Martin Sellner, presented his “remigration” vision for deportations.

National polls currently show AfD in second place with support of over 20% — behind the mainstream opposition center-right bloc, but ahead of the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unpopular center-left governing coalition. The party is even stronger in three regions in the formerly communist east that will hold state elections in September.

AfD has sought to distance itself from the meeting, saying it had no organizational or financial links to the event, that it wasn’t responsible for what was discussed there and members who attended did so in a purely personal capacity. Still, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel has parted company with an advisor, Roland Hartwig, who was there — while also decrying the reporting itself.

In recent days, “we have heard fears and concerns; we have seen that, at kitchen tables in Germany, German citizens are discussing the question of whether they must flee their own country,” Lars Klingbeil, the co-leader of Scholz's Social Democrats, told parliament on Thursday.