Germany’s left-liberal establishment media has been promoting a “secret’ deportation plan formulated by the Alternative for Germany (AfD); however, AfD politician René Springer says the plan is no secret and vowed to deport millions should the AfD come to power.
“We will return foreigners to their homeland. By the millions,” he wrote on X. “This is not a secret plan. This is a promise. For more security. For more justice. To preserve our identity. For Germany.”
The AfD has been promoting its policy on “remigration” as of late, but focusing primarily on migrants convicted of crimes, whom Germany has been unable to remove. However, although there are hundreds of thousands of migrants who are “tolerated” in Germany, the figure of millions presented by Springer would represent a far loftier goal in terms of deportations.
In a statement earlier this week, the AfD detailed a long list of offenses involving migrants during New Year’s celebrations, including the case of three migrants knocking a doctor unconscious on video in a Berlin hospital, a 20-year-old Somali beating a woman with a fire extinguisher on a train near Schwetzingen, and a Ukrainian migrant hitting a 46-year-old with a bottle in Bad Lippspringe.
“Everyday life in the ‘colorful republic,’ Such everyday conditions are shocking and make it clear: 2024 must be the year of remigration! Anyone who vandalizes restaurants and train stations, attacks doctors, or riots on trains has no place here and must be deported immediately. Action must finally be taken,” wrote the AfD in its statement.
Springer’s message on deportation comes at a time when the AfD just hit a record high of 24 percent in a new national poll from YouGov, a poll result once thought unthinkable by most just a year ago.
Some X users have taken a victory lap over AfD’s surging poll numbers.
“New Forsa surveys! AfD Saxony: 37%, AfD Thuringia: 36%, AfD Brandenburg: 32%. Do you finally understand it, dear old parties and old media? It doesn’t bother us that the AfD wants #Remigration. On the contrary, we – and more and more Germans – are voting for the AfD BECAUSE they want remigration!” wrote one user.
However, there has been debate in the party as to what extent deportations must take place, with some advocating mass deportations that reach into the millions, including foreigners with German citizenship, while others in the party do not view this as a viable option. However, the AfD announced yesterday that it would not deport German citizens, with legal experts saying that would violate the country’s constitution.
There is precedent for mass deportations of a similar size in history. Under former President Barack Obama, millions of migrants were deported from the country. In fact, data shows that he deported more migrants than former President Donald Trump. Just last year, Pakistan embarked on a program to rapidly deport 1.7 million Afghan migrants, with many of them already forced out of the country. Germany, in fact, has promised to take in a certain number of these migrants.
If the AfD were to come to power and enact such a program, it would mark a sharp turn from the left-liberal government’s open border policy and plans to naturalize millions of foreigners. The party may have strong support from the German public for such a policy, however, as polling shows a strong majority of Germans believe that migrants bring more problems than benefits and want a pause on immigration.