AfD files defamation complaint after Merz's remarks on ethnic cleansing

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The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said it had filed a defamation complaint against Chancellor Friedrich Merz over a speech in which he said its “remigration” plans amounted to “ethnic cleansing.”

“The insinuation that the AfD parliamentary group — which stands firmly on the grounds of the German constitution — is committed to ethnic cleansing, i.e. ultimately to expulsions and murders, is so clear that the judiciary must take action here,” Stephan Brandner, a senior AfD member of the Bundestag, said in a statement .

Merz made the comments during a Bundestag debate Wednesday. “’Remigration’ is nothing more than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color,” he said, adding that the AfD’s migration crackdown would devastate the German economy.

Under Article 46 of Germany’s Basic Law, members of the Bundestag are generally protected from legal action over statements made in parliament. However, the protection does not apply to “defamatory insults.” Merz’s statements, according to Brandner, “crossed the line,” making them “criminally relevant.”

Merz has not remarked on the AfD’s move, and his press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Remigration” is a far-right concept used by the AfD to refer to the return or deportation of migrants whom the party says have no right to remain in Germany. It can range from deporting people without legal status to the mass removal of immigrants and their descendants.

The AfD dedicated an entire chapter to “immigration and remigration” in its election program for Saxony-Anhalt, where it won a landslide election victory on Sunday.