A month ago, the media company “Correctiv” published explosive research into a secret meeting between AfD politicians and right-wing extremists in Potsdam. Nobody could predict what would happen next.
On January 10th, the message will come straight to your cell phone early in the morning. “In November, right-wing extremists are said to have presented a master plan for mass deportations from Germany in a hotel near Potsdam,” ZDF is not the only one pushing shortly after 6 a.m. The basis is research by the media company “Correctiv”, called “secret plan against Germany”. The result is an earthquake.
For a month, hundreds of thousands have been demonstrating all over Germany for democracy, against right-wing extremism and against the AfD. The AfD has drawn conclusions internally and made serious accusations externally. And the journalists from “Correctiv” are sometimes celebrated as heroes, sometimes ostracized as “liars”. What exactly happened? Why now? And how long will this last? An interim balance.
The revealing
Anyone who has been following the AfD closely for a while will not be particularly surprised by the “Correctiv” revelations this morning. The core: AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the Values Union discussed on November 25, 2023 in Potsdam with the pacesetter of the right-wing extremist Identitarian movement, Martin Sellner. According to his own statements, he spoke there about the so-called remigration.Theo Müller and AfD 12.26
When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress. AfD politicians also use the term publicly, sometimes calling for “millions of remigration” – like delegate Irmhild Boßdorf at the AfD European Party Conference in 2023. Sellner’s connections to the AfD are also known. Nevertheless, the extensively researched reconstruction of the non-public Potsdam meeting by “Correctiv” hits a nerve.
The demonstrations
The day after it was published, people demonstrated at the site of the Potsdam meeting in November. And that is just the beginning. On January 12th, hundreds marched in front of the Berlin Chancellery and demanded a ban on the AfD. In the next few days there will be thousands, then tens of thousands in Cologne, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin. In small cities and in large ones, in the West and in the East. It is the largest wave of demonstrations against right-wing extremism in decades. The Chancellor speaks out, the Federal President, ministers and prime ministers, some of them also demonstrate. “We won’t allow anyone to differentiate the ‘we’ in our country based on whether someone has an immigration history or not,” writes Olaf Scholz on X (formerly Twitter). “We protect everyone – regardless of origin, skin color or how uncomfortable someone is for fanatics with assimilation fantasies.”
Why does this research of all things have such a powerful effect?
The Tübingen media scientist Bernhard Pörksen sees “tipping points in general perception” that only seem to come as a surprise. “It takes an explosive, immediately understandable, symbolic key event – in this case the conference in Potsdam,” explains Pörksen to the German Press Agency. “What is also necessary is public scandal, which shakes up and confronts society. And finally, you have to look at the previous history, which profoundly shapes the climate of perception.”STERN Afd and the consequences for the economy
These include “border crossings” by AfD politicians, the party’s high polls, a weak traffic light coalition and a collective fear of the future in the face of major crises, says the media scientist. “All of this combined to create a mood that is pushing towards a public positioning. The “Correctiv” revelations were something like the last straw here.”
The AfD is drawing conclusions
The AfD reacts in two ways. She portrays the Potsdam meeting as private and incidental, but immediately draws conclusions: she fires Roland Hartwig, the personal advisor to party leader Alice Weidel, who was there in Potsdam. Weidel then immediately switches to attack mode. In the Bundestag, the party and parliamentary group leader speaks of an “unprecedented smear campaign” and “unbelievable lies”; she calls “Correctiv” an “auxiliary Stasi” in the service of the government. The non-profit, donation-financed media company receives state funding for individual projects, but according to its own information, not for investigative research.
One point of contention is what the AfD means by “remigration”. “Correctiv” writes that the goal of the Potsdam participants is: “People should be able to be expelled from Germany based on racist criteria – regardless of whether they have a German passport or not.” The AfD politician Marc Jongen counters: “The AfD makes no distinction between German citizens with and without a migration background.”
But for Potsdam speaker Sellner, people with a German passport definitely play a role. In an email to the dpa, the Austrian writes that there must be a “minus migration” for certain groups. He also mentions “non-assimilated citizens”. “Pressure to adapt” and “incentives for voluntary return” are necessary. Where German citizens should “return” remains unclear. At the same time, Sellner confirms the idea of a “model city” that “could be leased and organized as a special economic zone in North Africa.”
The consequences for “Correctiv”
Despite all the accusations of lying, according to “Correctiv”, no one from the Potsdam meeting circle has so far taken action against the content of the publication. There was only one change in the original text, says deputy editor-in-chief Anette Dowideit of the dpa. “We have corrected that the participant Alexander von Bismarck is not a descendant of Otto von Bismarck.” There are two warning letters, but: “Our lawyer and we are currently assuming that we do not have to change anything in our article because of the letters.”
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The AfD politician Gerrit Huy has filed a criminal complaint, as the Potsdam public prosecutor’s office confirms. However, Huy is not taking action against the content of the article, but rather against any violation of personal rights. “I am particularly interested in gaining access to any audio and video recordings,” Huy wrote to the dpa when asked. “If the case were positive, I would sue for the release of these recordings, in particular in order to then make the audio recordings public.”
Because that remains a hotly debated question: How did “Correctiv” know so little about the contents of the Potsdam meeting? The media company speaks of “sources” and “memory protocols”. The federal agency and “Correctiv” reject the insinuation that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution provided information. “We have no government influence, we have no contact with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, who is said to have leaked anything to us,” says “Correctiv” boss Justus von Daniels to ZDF.
It is clear that the media company is now extremely well known. “We received a lot of new commitments from individual donors,” says Dowideit. At the same time, “Correctiv” also reports on hate comments and threats.
What happens next?
The demonstrations against right-wing extremism and the AfD could become a long-term protest movement, says Marburg protest researcher Tareq Sydiq. Since Fridays for Future is involved in the organization, there are structures in many places. Broad alliances with hundreds of associations have been formed, for example for the Berlin “Hand in Hand” rally with around 150,000 participants last weekend.
The AfD, on the other hand, is counting on the demo wave to level off. “We see that, of course, the population is being incited to a certain extent by the government, especially in the media, and that worries me to a certain extent,” says party leader Tino Chrupalla on ntv/RTL. But the AfD is “still stable at over 20 percent in surveys.”
In fact, the AfD was only at 19 percent in the political barometer at the beginning of February, 3 points lower than in mid-January. Forsa recently found 18 percent for the party. What this means for the European elections in June or the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September is unclear. The AfD is number one in the three federal states.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
