The co-leader of the German Social Democrats (SPD), the largest party in the Bundestag, has accused the leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” as he warned that plans for mass deportation discussed at a secret meeting attended by its members had sparked fears for millions across the country.
In an extraordinary parliamentary debate on “fortifying democracy” in reaction to the far-right gathering that took place in November in Potsdam, Lars Klingbeil described the AfD as “rightwing extremist”. He accused the party leader and parliamentary head, Alice Weidel, of being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” over her “teary-eyed” description of what she said was a “smear campaign” against the party. “Your facade is beginning to crumble,” he said. “The true face of the AfD is clearly coming to light.”
As thousands of protesters around the country were expected to demonstrate against the AfD for the sixth evening in a row, Klingbeil, who has since 2021 been co-leader of the party of the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said revelations about the meeting on “remigration” had struck fear into the hearts of many.
“At kitchen tables across Germany, German citizens are having to discuss with each other whether they should flee their own country,” he said. He accused the AfD of wanting to “expel those who are not white enough, [or] have the ‘wrong’ surname”.
The reports of the meeting by the investigative journalism bureau Correctiv probably offered “only a small insight into things that they are discussing and planning”, he said, focusing his gaze on the AfD’s members, some of whom sat shaking their heads.
He called on the party, which has confirmed the participation at the meeting of two leading members but denied its association with the organisers or the plans discussed, to “name the backers planning this coup d’etat with you” at the event in Potsdam and at six other similar gatherings that allegedly took place since autumn 2021.
Scholz has said the meeting should be examined by the constitutional court while the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, called on the conservative Christian Democratic Union to distance itself from the far right.
Nationwide polls published on Thursday, however, showed the AfD remained the second-strongest political party, with no evidence that its ratings had been damaged by the revelations. The AfD was on 21%, compared with 30% for the CDU/CSU alliance.
The SPD – which emerged as the largest party in the Bundestag at the last federal election – was on 15%, while its two coalition partners, the Greens and pro-business Free Democratic party, were on 14% and 4% respectively, according to the Civey polling institute.
Other MPs were equally vocal at the debate, with Britta Haßelmann, parliamentary leader of the Greens, accusing the AfD of “contempt” and “hostility”, over the “barbaric plans for a barbaric deportation”, saying anyone expressing “such violent fantasies” was not a democrat.
She ridiculed the party leaders’ attempts to distance themselves from the meeting, and reject the plans discussed, quoting from a post by AfD’s René Springer on the social media platform X after the reports were published, approving of the plans. He wrote: “We will send millions of foreigners back to their homeland. That it is no secret plan, that is a promise.”
Haßelmann said: “They call themselves patriots, they violate our constitution and our legal system, and they despise our democratic, diverse, human face.
“They are fascists.”
In the angry exchange that followed, AfD MPs rejected the accusations. Bernd Baumann, the head of its parliamentary group, described the Potsdam meeting as “a roundtable of businesses and self-employed people who regularly meet up to exchange thoughts” who had been defamed by the ruling coalition.
He added that the AfD’s calls for the deportation of people, “such as rejected asylum seekers”, was simply the “enforcement of the law and constitution”. He said the current governments were the ones contravening the rules by not enforcing them and failing to deport people.
“The wind is turning,” he said, pointing to poll ratings for all three government parties in particular in the state of Saxony that are, he said, in danger of failing to reach the 5% hurdle needed to enter parliament. “Germany is going to get something new. The AfD is coming for Germany – whether you like it or not”.
Elections are to take place in Saxony and two other east German states in the autumn. In all three states, the AfD is leading the polls.
