The AfD-affiliated youth organization Generation Deutschland held its second federal congress in Magdeburg on Saturday, one week before the state election in Saxony-Anhalt scheduled for September 6. Alongside internal organizational matters, the event served as a platform for political messaging ahead of the vote.
Delegates were expected to address vacancies within the organization's leadership and discuss amendments to its statutes. The congress also featured speeches from senior figures, including AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund and Generation Deutschland chairman Jean-Pascal Hohm.
Generation Deutschland was established in November as the successor organization to the Junge Alternative (JA), the former youth wing of the AfD.
The JA had been dissolved months earlier after Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified it as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization. According to the BfV, security authorities are also monitoring Generation Deutschland. The agency has stated that it sees a "programmatic and personnel continuity" between the dissolved Junge Alternative and its successor organization.
During his speech at the congress, Generation Deutschland chairman Jean-Pascal Hohm called for the large-scale return of immigrants from Germany. Hohm argued that "millions" had come to Germany against the will of the population and against legal and rational principles. He said that "millions must leave this country again."
He justified this demand with what he described as the need to preserve Germany as a nation of Germans, stating that this principle was "not negotiable." Hohm further said that there should be no acceptance or accommodation of demographic change and described the AfD as an expression of the "will to live" of the German people.
AfD Member of the European Parliament René Aust expanded on the theme of remigration during the event. Aust argued that remigration should not be limited to Germany but should be implemented across Europe. He called for a Europe-wide policy and advocated turning Europe into a "Fortress Europe."
According to Aust, entry to the continent should be restricted to people whom Europeans explicitly wish to admit.
The term "remigration" is commonly used by right-wing extremist groups to describe the large-scale removal of people with migrant backgrounds, including against their will. Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has stated that the concept aims at creating ethnically defined societies and is directed toward the removal of those considered "foreign" to the national community.
The congress took place just one week before voters in Saxony-Anhalt head to the polls. Against this backdrop, the gathering provided Generation Deutschland and the AfD with an opportunity to present their political positions ahead of the election.
At the same time, the organization continues to face scrutiny from Germany's domestic intelligence authorities, which maintain that significant ideological and personnel links exist between Generation Deutschland and the former Junge Alternative.
Key Takeaway: Generation Deutschland used its federal congress in Magdeburg to emphasize the issue of remigration ahead of the Saxony-Anhalt election, while Germany's security authorities continue to monitor the organization over concerns about continuity with the dissolved Junge Alternative.
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