Enlarge image
Marine Le Pen
Photo: Stevens Tomas / ABACAPRESS / IMAGO
After reports about the Potsdam meeting with right-wing extremists, the French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen clearly distanced herself from the AfD and threatened to end the joint group in the EU Parliament.
"I completely disagree with the proposals that were supposed to have been discussed at this meeting," said Le Pen, referring to the plans discussed in Potsdam for mass deportations of people with a migration background in Germany.
Le Pen added that it must be examined “whether this will have consequences” for the joint group in the EU Parliament.
"We will have to talk about these very big differences of opinion." The German right-wing populists and Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN) both belong to the "Identity and Democracy" faction in the EU Parliament.
RN party leader Jordan Bardella is its vice-chairman.
Le Pen is moderate
Le Pen wants to run as a candidate for the fourth time in the French presidential election in 2027.
In contrast to the AfD, it is becoming increasingly moderate.
Thanks to this course, she currently has a good chance of becoming Emmanuel Macron's successor.
Your leading candidate for the European elections in June, party leader Jordan Bardella, has been ahead in all forecasts for weeks with almost 30 percent in favor of the election, almost ten percentage points ahead of Macron's governing party.
Le Pen not only has to defend herself against Macron, but also against her even more radical competitor from the right-wing fringe, Eric Zemmour.
The extremist played a key role in popularizing the concept of “remigration,” which was discussed in Potsdam, in France.
"We have never defended a policy of 'remigration' that would involve depriving people of French citizenship," Le Pen now emphasizes.
"Even if we criticize the conditions for their preservation."
According to research by the Correctiv network, AfD politicians, members of the right-wing conservative "Values Union", right-wing extremists and entrepreneurs met in November 2023 in a hotel near Potsdam to discuss the expulsion of millions of people with an immigrant background from Germany.
This explicitly includes undesirable German citizens.
Martin Sellner, long-time spokesman for the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” in Austria, presented the ethnic plans there.
The right-wing extremists euphemistically refer to the planned mass expulsions as “remigration.”
The meeting led to demonstrations against the AfD in Germany.
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the country in recent days.
slü/AFP