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Landhaus Adlon near Potsdam: The meeting took place here
Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Brandenburg is examining whether it will focus more on the location after the meeting of radical right-wingers in a villa in Potsdam. Head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Jörg Müller told the state parliament's Interior Committee that he did not rule out the possibility of the villa being placed on the list of scene objects. According to him, the authority will collect evidence and evaluate whether the house was used several times by right-wing extremists and for their purposes, reports dpa. “We assume that we have other insights,” said Müller. He did not provide any further information about this in the state parliament's interior committee.
The media company “Correctiv” reported on a meeting between the radical right and some politicians from the AfD and CDU in a Potsdam villa on November 25th. Several AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative “Union of Values” also took part in the meeting. The participants debated the deportation of millions of people. The former head of the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he had spoken about “remigration”.
He was not surprised by the meeting in Potsdam, Müller told the Interior Committee. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been warning for years that there is a network that is aimed at removing the boundaries of right-wing extremism - i.e. at connecting them to the middle of society. The state association of the AfD in Brandenburg is taking up Sellner's positions and his "remigration concept," said Müller. The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the AfD state association as a suspected right-wing extremist case.
AfD members of the state parliament verbally attacked the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the Interior Committee and accused him, among other things, of not being neutral. Parliamentarian Birgit Bessin spoke of insinuations and defamations. She also said: "Mr. Sellner does not speak for the AfD." The AfD MP Lena Kotré accused the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, among other things, of destroying livelihoods. She also referred to the guest house where the meeting took place.
Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) said on Wednesday that, as far as he knew, there was a criminal complaint due to suspected illegal wiretapping activities during and around this meeting. He described the allegations made by AfD MPs against the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Müller, as insults and vehemently rejected them.
ani/dpa