The idea of “remigration” is based on the concept of “ethnopluralism.” The right has been using this for years to infiltrate society.
Working for “normalization through provocation”: right-wing extremist Martin Sellner, here at a rally in Vienna in 2016 Photo: dpa | Roland Schlager
AfD politicians and right-wing journalists have been spreading ideas about deportation for years, but now there is a term on everyone's lips: “remigration”. Martin Sellner's speech at the Potsdam meeting resonates. A discursive victory? In AfD, leading figures oscillate between attempts to relativize and attempts to attack. It is not surprising that for the first time in years the party has to publicly justify its positions to society as a whole.
The entire “patriotic” environment is trying to resist this pressure to justify itself from the center of society, sometimes with conspiracy narratives. The chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in Lower Saxony, Stefan Marzischewski, speaks of “erroneous information about a private meeting” and an “excessive smear campaign”.
Dirk Nockemann, leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Hamburg parliament, assumes that there is a “political media agitation” on the part of the SPD and that it is even “historical disinformation.” Lawyer and CDU member Ulrich Vosgerau, who also participated in the Potsdam meeting, was recently invited to a civic hour organized by the AfD parliamentary group in Hamburg. He also tried to tone down the topic. Vosgerau was already writing in the new right boys freedomthat Sellner was simply a “controversial writer” who had just released his book.
The self-proclaimed “New Right” has been fighting for decades over this discursive conflict. The issues and terms must be fixed in the pre-political space to gain influence and power in the political space. One of the first attempts was initiated by Lothar Penz in Hamburg in 1964. The “Youth Forum” working group, which was also responsible for a publication with the same name, aimed to create “the theoretical foundations for a new intellectual structure.”
“Ethnopluralism” means “foreigners out”
The forum's “intellectual leadership circle” knew that it was necessary to use modified argumentation and moderate rhetoric to address and establish policy positions. The historian and journalist Hennig Eichberg also comes from this circle, who coined the term “ethnopluralism” and thus created a basis of argument that is still valid today, without which the vision of “remigration” is, ultimately, unthinkable.
This concept shows why the right does not talk about repatriations or deportations: ethnopluralism is based on ethnic groups that have historically grown into a homogeneous community, with an independent identity and culture that must be preserved.
The argument sounds friendly, but the very premise that ethnic groups developed independently and without influence from other ethnic groups is flawed. The underlying message that ethnic groups need to be protected from foreign influences is ultimately radical. It means nothing more than: departure of foreigners, deportation, remigration. In his text “Collection Strategy”, Sellner himself emphasizes that a “homogeneous 'German' Germany” should not be abandoned.
In 2024, after more than 60 years, has this medium managed to influence the medium of society with the vision of “remigration”, which does not work without ethnopluralism? in the magazine secession Martin Sellner is now trying to celebrate the ongoing debate as a success. And this despite the fact that the AfD is losing slightly in the polls. He writes: “The strategic goal of normalization through connectable provocations also means that one may have to accept temporary losses of votes and popularity to achieve a long-term metapolitical 'territory conquest'.” The “scared undecided voters” would return later.