A few days before the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony, the journalists of the RTL EXTRA show exposed the entanglements between the AfD and the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in a secret investigation.
According to Behind the Scenes, the AfD cooperates with extremist groups to advance its political goals, according to research.
Officially, right-wing populists distance themselves from such networks. The survey also shows that high-ranking AfD politicians are involved in the Identitarian movement.
Investigative journalists spent four months investigating the closed circles of the Identitarian movement. During an “activist weekend” in Vienna, they documented brutal fights in a makeshift boxing ring, with the intention of illustrating the group’s willingness to use violence.
Martin Sellner, the leader of the Identitarian Movement, warmed up the participants before the fights, which were to be fought not only in the ring, but also on the street, more precisely the next day at the “remigration” demonstration in Vienna.
At the “remigration” demonstration, journalists met several members of the AfD. A participant from this party was openly xenophobic and anti-Semitic and even put the Holocaust into perspective.
“Six million Jews were not killed. There were at most 175,000 Jews gassed. The Holocaust happened differently. But I also have to say, I think it’s great that it happened,” said the AfD member, n-tv.de reports.
In addition, in a conversation with RTL journalists, she called for “Srebrenica 2.0 for Germany”, i.e. mass killing of Muslims.
Faced with RTL’s research, the AfD pointed out that the person in question left the party the same week.