German Chancellor Olaf Scholz slammed the far-right Different for Germany (AfD) after an investigation discovered that members of the social gathering had been current at a gathering of right-wing extremists during which a “grasp plan” to deport migrants and “unassimilated residents” was reportedly mentioned.
The report, by the German investigative outlet Correctiv, has despatched shockwaves throughout the nation as political leaders drew historic parallels to comparable plans made by the Nazis.
“We don’t enable anybody to distinguish the ‘we’ in our nation based mostly on whether or not somebody has an immigration historical past or not,” Scholz stated. “We shield everybody — no matter origin, pores and skin shade.”
The AfD has been rising in polls in latest months amid unrest over migration, presently sitting in second place at 23 %, in keeping with POLITICO’s Ballot of Polls, sparking debate in Germany about whether or not the social gathering poses an acute risk to democracy.
A number of AfD officers met with right-wing extremists and neo-Nazi activists in a resort close to Berlin in November, in keeping with the Correctiv report. The AfD officers — together with Roland Hartwig, right-hand man to social gathering co-leader Alice Weidel — met figures together with Martin Sellner, an Austrian right-wing extremist within the Identitarian motion, who has admitted to neo-Nazi exercise in his youth. Two members of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) additionally attended the assembly, in keeping with the report.
Throughout their assembly, Sellner offered a “remigration” plan to expel thousands and thousands of individuals from Germany, together with asylum seekers, foreigners with the fitting to stay and “unassimilated residents,” Correctiv reported.
The investigation has triggered additional outrage over the AfD’s hard-line positions — whereas the social gathering has tried to distance itself from the assembly.
However Kevin Kühnert, the governing Social Democrats’ common secretary, appealed “to all those that don’t need historical past to repeat itself” to face up in opposition to the AfD and to “not go away the sphere to the ‘enemies of mankind,’” German media reported.
Scholz added that opponents of German democracy will probably be investigated by the nation’s home intelligence company.
“Studying from historical past isn’t just lip service,” Scholz warned.
