For years, Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been best friends with Martin Sellner, one of Europe’s most notorious right-wing extremist influencers.
The 37-year-old Austrian is co-founder of the ethno-nationalist “identitarian movement”, which views multiculturalism and immigration as fundamental threats to European identity.
Such views are largely aligned with the AfD since it pivoted away from its neoliberal anti-bailout origins to embrace anti-migrant rhetoric and xenophobic populism.
But the times are changing. With three state elections looming this year in Germany, including one where the AfD has a real chance of taking office, the party is increasingly wary about the company it keeps.
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With that in mind, AfD leaders are demanding its members keep their distance from Sellner after a recent public gathering generated controversial headlines over a controversial policy Sellner calls “remigration”.
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In Sellner’s reading, remigration is about correcting failed integration by – in a final, drastic step – deporting “non-assimilated citizens” to their country of origin, even if they are naturalised citizens. This idea was a key part of a discreet meeting two years ago between Sellner and AfD officials at a luxury villa outside Berlin.
When news leaked of that remigration gathering, sparking countrywide protests, the AfD flailed around before devising a paper with a watered-down remigration definition. This focuses on deporting unwanted criminal and other problematic foreign nationals, without touching German citizens.
Leading AfD parliamentarian Alexander Krah has defended this more restrictive interpretation as “the only promising way to lead Germany out of the [migration] crisis”.
“The AfD is not a party of revolution, but of reform within the framework of the constitution,” he added, warning that a “supposedly easier path of radicalisation... would inevitably lead to political oblivion”.
This is a nod to growing political demands to ban the AfD and related ongoing observation by Germany’s domestic intelligence service.
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It suspects the party and its members of harbouring extremist views at odds with the country’s constitutional order, and claims some members are working to weaken and dismantle the democratic system from within.
The problem for AfD leaders is that not everyone is on board with their milder remigration policy.
Take Lena Kotré, AfD parliamentarian in the state of Brandenburg surrounding Berlin. At an event with Sellner last month, Kotré said she backed the AfD policy – before pivoting towards the Austrian’s approach.
“I am for an ethnocultural society, and immigration of a culturally alien nature can lead to great problems in our country, something that is already the case in our urban areas like Berlin,” she said at the event alongside Sellner. “We do not need any more culturally alien immigration, something which, of course, has to do with biology.”
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An AfD ban on allowing “identitarian movement” members into its ranks has proven difficult to enforce, with several prominent younger AfD members revealed in recent days as backing Sellner’s organisation.
On Wednesday, Naomi Seibst, a leading German far-right influencer, backed Sellner’s remigration proposal as “the antidote to the great replacement”, a popular conspiracy theory that European governments are working to replace the white population.
If Sellner is annoyed by the cold-shoulder from AfD leadership, he is hiding it well in social media posts. That the AfD has “departed from my more progressive remigration concept is normal between NGOs and parties”, he said.
In what might be perceived as a swipe against the AfD leadership, he added: “I know of no one who is afraid of me as a person, or of my ideas. Some are afraid of the leftist media and guilt by association. I think we should dial down the emotion.”
