Martin Sellner: Austrian extremist stirs up political storm in Germany
ft.comJan 19
Martin Sellner, leader of the right-wing Austrian Identitarian Movement, was stopped from speaking at an event organized by the Swiss group "Junge Tat,” or Young Deed, in Aargau, Switzerland Saturday. The Identitarian Movement was declared an extremist group by Germany in 2019.
Sellner, who was expected to speak about "remigration," or the deportation of non-Europeans back to their home countries, was ultimately removed from the entire state of Aargau. Police cited potential clashes with protesters at the event for their decision-making.
Sellner has been banned from both the US and UK for a reason. After being aligned with Nazi material in his late teens, the far-right politician has since 'limited' his discrimination to migrants trying to enter Europe and those who, according to him, "refuse to integrate." Sellner has used his voice to villainize African migrants, and now that he's gained popularity his movement is persuading the public to support closing borders and deporting both undocumented immigrants and legal citizens. He's a threat to the West and its values.
If anyone is being vilified here it's those who want to regain control of their national borders and policies. Not only has the media misrepresented Sellner's ideas, but it's even claimed that his alleged mass deportation plan is supported by mainstream parties such as Germany's AfD. Liberal regimes are trying to use Sellner as a trojan horse to ban any political pundit, politician, or party who goes against their orthodoxy. As more voters shift their support to nationalist candidates, we can expect the powers that be to suppress and even ban more opposition movements.
There's a 4% chance that the AfD party will win the most seats in the next German federal elections before 2026, according to the Metaculus prediction community.