What’s German far-right’s deportation plan that has triggered protests?

It reads like a spy story, one that involves a group with dubious intentions gathered for a secret meeting. The warm interior of an elegant countryside hotel on the outskirts of Potsdam sets the scene.

The characters in question: German and Austrian right-wing extremists, united in the belief that people of certain skin colours and ethnicities should be forcefully deported from Germany, even if they have citizenship.

According to an explosive report by German investigative journalism network Correctiv, members of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) met neo-Nazi leaders and wealthy businessmen at the upscale Landhaus Adlon hotel last November to thrash out a plan on how to deport immigrants.

Those who were present at the controversial gathering included Roland Hartwig, personal adviser to AfD leader Alice Weidel and Ulrich Siegmund, a party leader in Saxony Anhalt state.

Organised by a known right-wing extremist Gernot Morig, the meeting discussed a “master plan” centred on “remigration” to rid Germany of its immigrants. Martin Sellner, an Austrian far-right activist, is the author of the plan.

The news about the secret plant is one of the reasons, which have resulted in large protests against the far-right in Germany.

What is remigration?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines remigration as “the act of migrating again… especially the act of returning to one’s original or previous home after a migration.” Remigration is also thus used by migration researchers to describe exactly that.

The term, however, has been politically charged by the far-right in Europe. It is being used to target people with immigrant backgrounds.

While the AfD has spoken publicly about remigration before — its official manifesto calls for the speeding up of deportations of asylum seekers, whose applications have been denied, and illegal immigrants — what’s significant now is that participants in the secret meeting explicitly discussed forcibly pushing out immigrants who have German citizenship.

“It’s a scenario that would contravene the citizenship rights and principle of equality between citizens which are a bedrock of the German constitution,” the Correctiv said. The meeting also acted as an unofficial fundraiser where guests could give cash donations.

Sellner’s “master plan” would involve moving people to a “model state” in North Africa, where up to two million people could apparently live. Sellner also wants to deport those who lobby on behalf of the refugees.

If Sellner’s plan comes to fruition, millions of Germans with a history of immigration would be affected and risk facing deportation.

At the secret gathering, Silke Schröder, a property developer and board member of the right-leaning Verein Deutsche Sprache (German Language Association), asked how feasible the plan is as it would be “impossible” to deport someone with the “appropriate” passport.

Sellner responded, according to Correctiv, that a “high level of pressure” through “customised laws” would be applied, and that remigration is “a project that will take decades” to realise.

AfD’s Gerrit Huy not only emphasised that this has been her goal for years but also claimed to have presented the party with a remigration concept when she first joined seven years ago.

Since news of the secret meeting broke on January 10, AfD has denied that Seller’s master plan is part of its policy, with party leader Weidel announcing she had parted ways with advisor Hartwig, who was confirmed to have participated in the meeting.

Sellner, who is not allowed entry into the United Kingdom and the United States, confirmed he was at the meeting but said nothing he proposed was illegal.

"I made it very clear that no distinctions can be made between citizens — that there can be no second-class citizens — and that all remigration measures have to be legal," he told Reuters in an email.

"Unassimilated citizens like Islamists, gangsters and welfare cheats should be pushed to adapt through a policy of standards and assimilation,” he added.

Rene Springer, an AfD representative in the state of Brandenberg, meanwhile, said that the mass deportation of foreigners is “not a secret plan.”

"We will return foreigners to their homeland. Millions of times. This is not a secret plan. It’s a promise, “Springer posted on his X account. “For more security. For more justice. To preserve our identity. For Germany.”

Germany for the most part has been outraged. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across cities in protest amid growing pressure for AfD to be banned.

Some have compared the proposed masterplan to the Nazi-era plan to deport European Jews to Madagascar.

Parliamentary group leader of the neoliberal Free Democrats Party (FDP) Christian Dürr said on X, “The plans to expel millions of people are reminiscent of the darkest chapter in German history. The research by Correctiv shows that the AfD deeply rejects democracy and our free basic order.”

Following 10 days of nationwide protests, the latest polls show that support for AfD has dropped two percentage points to 20 percent. Despite remaining in second place, the AfD dropped to its lowest level in four months, according to the Forsa poll.