How artificial the AfD federal executive board’s formal distancing from right-wing extremism is is becoming abundantly clear again in Brandenburg these days. There, Lena Kotré, a member of the state parliament, and her husband, Steffen Kotré, a member of the Bundestag, had planned an event with the right-wing extremist Martin Sellner.
It was supposed to be in Luckenwalde on Thursday evening once again present his ethnic concepts – although the Federal Executive Board had advised not to hold any events with Sellner in view of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the threat of a ban on the AfD.
Especially because the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig had named Sellner’s ethnic master plan for what it is: as contrary to human dignity. The right-wing extremist advocates using “assimilation pressure” to ensure the displacement of Germans with a migrant background, and he summarizes all of this under the trivializing battle term “remigration”. From Sellner’s perspective, around 5 to 6 million citizens with a migration background are eligible. He proposes, among other things, to restrict religious freedom through state measures and distinguishes between first and second class citizens based on ethnic criteria.
The AfD has long been using the term “remigration”. right-wing extremist dogwhistle – formally with a tactically weakened definition in which it claims not to want to harm citizens. In the long term, the extreme right-wing party is pushing the limits of what can be said further towards anti-constitutional content. At the same time, there is fear of an impending ban procedure, which is why the AfD leadership does not want to get too close – especially as long as they are still in legal disputes with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution over the classification as “certain right-wing extremist”. That’s also why he had Federal Executive Board intervenesto cancel the AfD event with Sellner.
AfD federal executive board publicly duped
That was partially successful: On Friday, Lena Kotré formally canceled the originally planned event. But at the same time she announced that she had accepted an invitation to an event from Sellner – “coincidentally” on the same day at the same time on the same topic. They also used almost identical advertising material to publicly demonstrate the Federal Executive Board. Only Bundestag member Steffen Kotré was missing and the event was now supposed to take place in southern Brandenburg instead of in his constituency office in Luckenwalde. The exact location should be announced shortly.
According to taz information, Sellner and Kotré’s provocation was also a topic at the federal executive board meeting on Monday. Federal executive circles then said that the Brandenburg state executive had been asked to speak to Kotré again. When taz asked Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla to distance themselves from the content, a spokesman for Weidel referred to the AfD’s weakened definition of “remigration”. There is still no serious substantive distancing from Sellner and his anti-constitutional concepts.
And there was no sign of pressure from the state executive committee on Tuesday: in the press conference of the AfD parliamentary group in the Brandenburg state parliament, the faction and state chairman Hans-Christoph Berndt himself said Long-time right-wing extremist networker in southern Brandenburgsimply: “It’s not our place to judge now. If Ms. Kotré wants to take part in an event, she is free to do so.” You don’t need the approval of the party or parliamentary group to do this.
Accordingly, Berndt did not criticize the content or even distance himself – on the contrary: “I do not see that Martin Sellner is a non-person and that it is a crime to meet with Martin Sellner. In this respect, there is no criticism from me at all about Ms. Kotré meeting with Mr. Sellner.” The only criticism he expressed towards his deputy parliamentary group leader Kotré: “It is not politically wise to set up such appointments on your own.”
When asked to assess the content of Sellner’s ethnic concepts, he accused a journalist of “fake news” and defended Sellner: He claimed that he did not want to deport millions of people despite having German citizenship. Afterwards, Berndt became so excited that he asked journalists present to have a public discussion with Sellner.