Just days after the AfD’s victory in the state election in Saxony-Anhalt, its lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has sparked outrage with comments about a possible use of military equipment in “later remigration and deportation offensives”.“Just as the Nazis announced what they were going to do back then, these enemies of democracy are also announcing what they will do. No one should later say: ‘I didn’t know,’” Sören Pellmann, parliamentary group leader of the Left Party in the Bundestag, said in Berlin on Friday.
Felix Banaszak, federal chairman of the Greens, described Siegmund’s remarks as “disturbing”. They revealed “how willing the AfD is to cross all constitutional and rule-of-law boundaries in order to achieve its goals”, he told the news portal t-online on Friday. Katja Pähle, chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt’s state parliament, said Siegmund was “talking about violence as a means of politics”. It was not a matter of an ambiguous formulation. “This is a political threat.”
Siegmund made the comments on Thursday after being elected chairman of the newly constituted AfD parliamentary group in the state parliament. Speaking to journalists, he said: “We do not categorically demonise the production of military equipment, because in later remigration and deportation offensives, of course, we will also need appropriate equipment.”
The comments came in response to a question about plans to establish an arms company in Sangerhausen. The plans are controversial locally and were also an issue during the state election campaign there.
The remarks come at a time when there is renewed nationwide controversy over how to deal with the AfD, which the constitutional protection authorities in Saxony-Anhalt and other German states have classified as definitively right-wing extremist. The party won the Saxony-Anhalt election by a clear margin on Sunday. Siegmund wants to become minister-president and is currently looking for ways to secure a governing majority for his party.
Demands for deportations have long been firmly established in the AfD’s programme. The term “remigration” is also used within the AfD and its wider environment. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it refers to a far-right extremist concept aimed at creating a society defined by ethnic affiliation through the mass expulsion of people considered “alien to the people”.
Just on Wednesday, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) accused the AfD in the Bundestag of using the concept of remigration to describe “nothing other than ethnic cleansing based on skin colour and origin”. The AfD parliamentary group subsequently filed a criminal complaint.
On Friday, SPD parliamentary group leader Pähle specifically called on the BSW in her state to take a position. “Siegmund is outlining here a system of state-organised expulsion that does not even shy away from military violence,” she said, referring to his remarks from the previous day. “The BSW cannot remain silent about this.”
The BSW in Saxony-Anhalt is the only party that does not rule out cooperation with Siegmund and the AfD following Sunday’s election. The BSW state executive accepted an invitation from the AfD to hold talks. All other parties elected to the new state parliament, however, rejected the offer.
Siegmund himself said on Thursday that the AfD was holding talks with “members of parliament from various parties” about forming a government, although he did not provide any details.
From breaking news to thought-provoking opinion pieces, our newsletter keeps you informed & engaged.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
