AfD files police complaint against Merz

The parliamentary group of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Bundestag has filed a complaint with the police following remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz about the party.

The parliamentary group announced this on its page on X.

"The reason was the chancellor's speech during the budget debate in the Bundestag, in which he accused the AfD parliamentary group of propagating, when speaking about 'remigration,' 'nothing other than ethnic cleansing by skin color and origin,'" the statement says. The parliamentary group's parliamentary secretary, Stephan Brandner, noted that Merz had "once again crossed the line" and that this time his statements fall within the sphere of criminal liability. He called the chancellor's words "completely unacceptable." The lawmaker emphasized that the AfD parliamentary group acts on the basis of the German constitution.

The concept of "remigration" originally came from research in the field of migration. When it is used by right-wing extremists, they generally mean that a large number of people of foreign origin should leave the country, including by force. The Alternative for Germany also uses this term, however, in the AfD's statements on this topic it is emphasized that it is not about German citizens, but exclusively about the return to their homeland of foreigners obliged to leave the country, within the framework of the Basic Law.

Source: TASS