German Chancellor Condemns AfD's Racist 'Remigration' Scheme as Threat to Workers and Economy
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Chancellor Friedrich Merz denounced the Alternative for Germany’s xenophobic proposal to escalate deportations, warning it would destroy vital services and comparing it to ethnic cleansing.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addressed the Bundestag with a forceful denunciation of the far-right Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) reactionary push for a harsher 'remigration' policy, which he said would devastate the German economy and society. Merz called out the AfD’s rhetoric, exposing 'remigration' as a thinly veiled synonym for ethnic cleansing, targeting people based on their origin and skin colour. He warned that the AfD’s plan to expel foreign-born workers would cripple essential sectors—skilled trades, nursing homes, hospitals, and restaurants—where migrants and people of colour are the backbone of the workforce.
Merz’s remarks followed the alarming landslide victory of the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the party nearly seized an absolute parliamentary majority. The AfD’s election program for the state brazenly includes a chapter on 'immigration and remigration,' and its lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund participated in a 2023 meeting with far-right extremists discussing mass deportations of so-called 'non-assimilated' German citizens—a chilling echo of Europe’s darkest history.
AfD national co-leader Alice Weidel responded by claiming that voters in Saxony-Anhalt had rejected the progressive governing coalition and that the party would seek a mandate to govern nationally. Merz, however, highlighted the AfD’s dangerous disregard for security, linking a recent drone attack at Leipzig-Halle airport to Russian interference and exposing the party’s complicity in spreading Russian disinformation.
The chancellor pledged that the government would use every available tool to resist the AfD’s racist and destructive agenda, standing up for democracy, diversity, and the rights of all workers.