New Right | Naturalized Germans: Deport or ghettoize

There's a celebration going on this weekend in Schnellroda, Saxony-Anhalt. Götz Kubitschek's new right-wing Antaios publishing house has invited people to a summer festival in the village. Around 500 people from the far right are expected, ranging from young activists to established AfD politicians. In addition to promoting the publishing house, the festival also serves as a platform for networking and discussion. However, guests in Schnellroda will have to forgo a highly anticipated debate. Austrian Identitarian activist Martin Sellner does not want to discuss "remigration" with Bundestag member Maximilian Krah. Yet the debate has been raging in right-wing virtual spaces for weeks and has also made waves beyond.

Krah is a colorful figure in the AfD. In last year's European elections, Krah's trivializing comments about the SS caused a rift between the AfD and other important European right-wing parties. Krah didn't fare well in the European Parliament; he ran in the federal election in the Chemnitz region and is now a directly elected member of parliament. In between, there was a scandal involving one of Krah's employees, who was alleged to have spied for China, and just in May it was revealed that Krah was being investigated for corruption in office and suspected money laundering. Krah has also published a book with Antaios Verlag entitled "Politics from the Right." In short, the man is active. And an important voice in the AfD and its nationalist milieu. For several months, Krah has surprised audiences, primarily on his X-account, with statements indicating that he has reconsidered some of his positions on migration policy. In response to a query from the research network Correctiv, Krah declared that he "needs to rethink the question of the multiethnicity of the nation." In May, he wrote in a post on X that the state "cannot reverse the changes brought about by mass immigration." This was a rejection of the concept of "remigration" as advocated by Martin Sellner. And a rejection of the idea of ​​an ethnically homogeneous Germany, which is at the core of extreme right-wing ideologies .

At the beginning of June, Krah had to answer critical questions from Götz Kubitschek and his partner Ellen Kositza on the podcast "Kanal Schnellroda." Shortly thereafter, an editorial in "Die Zeit" hailed the debate as "the most interesting thing political parties and their intellectual elites have produced recently." Ulf Poschardt wrote in "Die Welt," referring to Krah, "that part of the party wants to develop toward coalition capability."

The debate between Krah and Kubitschek is actually quite simple. Krah argues that the distinction between ethnic Germans and those who are merely citizens is a no-go for the state. The decision of the Münster Higher Administrative Court regarding the classification of the AfD by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution demonstrated this. The state is not joking about this issue; anyone with a German passport is simply German. It has to be dealt with. Martin Sellner's remigration concept, which is defended by large sections of the New Right, is ambiguous and is being interpreted to the AfD's disadvantage by political opponents. What Krah means: Many extreme right-wingers also understand "remigration" to include the deportation of German citizens whose roots lie abroad. A political approach that is clearly unconstitutional.

Krah now proposes accepting the existence of German citizens with a migrant background as a given. The key, he argues, is to close the borders, end all immigration, and deport those without a German passport. In Krah's vision of the future, Germans with a migrant background live together in certain areas—he speaks of Syrians moving to the Ruhr region—and could then also have a degree of self-government there. In other words, Krah wants a Germany in which all non-ethnic Germans live together in better ghettos. A vision that is difficult to reconcile with the Basic Law.

Krah's idea, however, is still the supposedly harmless one. In the podcast discussion, Götz Kubitschek and Ellen Kositza argue passionately against Krah. They consider his understanding of the state to be liberal nonsense. It is important to Kubitschek that "every people is a community of descent" and that "a minimum degree of homogeneity is part of the nation-state." Laws can be changed, and "the illegitimate" can be corrected. What Kubitschek is expressing is blood-and-soil thinking, and his corrections amount to the deportation of "cultural aliens," regardless of whether they have a German passport or not. A political concept that is unconstitutional.

The podcast debate has been followed by a variety of spoken and video contributions in recent weeks. The tone is clear: Krah is perceived as fickle. His vision of the future is dangerous, and Germany could end up like Lebanon. Others emphasize that Krah is trying to place the "firewall" within the AfD. Positions like those of Kubitschek and Sellner are being excluded in order to make the party capable of forming a coalition with the CDU/CSU. This is accompanied by the warning that the AfD could lose massive numbers of voters if it allows itself to be contained.

Wanja Seifert is active in the anti-fascist collective "IfS dichtmachen," which has been working with the New Right in and around Schnellroda for years and organized a demonstration against the summer festival on Saturday. Seifert considers the debate surrounding Krah to be part of "permanent organizational and ideological rearguard actions," which Kubitschek and his colleagues are, however, presenting as successes. The debates are likely to bring Kubitschek some sales success, at least. A new book by Maximilan Krah has been announced by the publisher.

Seifert explains that the AfD is primarily successful in polls, but regularly falls short of its own expectations in elections. "This creates frustration among potential voters and, coupled with the timid attempts to contain them by politicians and security authorities, creates panic and pressure for change in large parts of the AfD and the right-wing extremist milieu in Schnellroda," explains the anti-fascist.

Seifert is uncertain about the outcome of the debate surrounding Krah and "remigration." However, a look at other European countries, where extreme right-wing parties are sometimes more successful than the AfD, shows a path that "Kubitschek and Co. are unlikely to like and will lead to further marginalization of the Schnellroda bubble within the AfD." Seifert says that from an anti-fascist perspective, this is precisely where one must start: "Even if no one on the extreme right wants to admit it, protest and dissent are perceived far beyond one's own bubble and set the tone for issues and moods against which the right regularly responds only with blunt hatred and contemptuous agitation." This must be made clear again and again, "also and especially" when hundreds of right-wingers come to Schnellroda to party.