As of: January 20, 2024, 5:06 a.m
By: Felix Durach
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The AfD downplays the recent scandal surrounding the Potsdam meeting and launches a counterattack.
For expert Johannes Hille, this is a typical pattern of right-wing populists.
Frankfurt – On Wednesday (January 10th), the investigative network
Correctiv
published the results of research that has since caused unrest in the German political landscape.
Under the title “Secret plan against Germany”,
Correctiv
reports on a meeting in a Potsdam hotel in November 2023. In addition to politicians from the AfD and members of the Union of Values, scene leaders from the New Right also took part.
The chairmen of the AfD Alice Weidel (l) and Tino Chrupalla spoke about the allegations at a press conference.
© Bernd Elmenthaler/imago-images
“Secret meeting” in Potsdam – Bundestag debates AfD participation
Martin Sellner, who was spokesman for the right-wing extremist Identitarian movement in Austria for years, is said to have presented a plan to the other participants.
Millions of people should therefore be expelled from Germany after the AfD has gained government responsibility - keyword “remigration”.
One of Sellner's demands: German citizens would also have to be expelled from the Federal Republic if they are not sufficiently "assimilated".
What followed was an outcry – both among the German population and in politics.
Since the publication of the research, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the advancing shift to the right.
Further demonstrations are planned for the coming days.
The Bundestag will also address the issue.
On Thursday (January 18th), at the request of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, Parliament will meet for a current hour entitled “Defensive Democracy in a Diverse Country – Clear Edge Against Enemies of Democracy and Expulsion Plans”.
The AfD will then also be confronted with the allegations in the Bundestag.
“Scandal reversal as a goal”: Expert explains – this is how the AfD’s communication works
But how has the AfD reacted to the reports in the days since they were published?
The right-wing populists are going into attack mode via their favorite channels on social networks - in which they use the results for their own benefit.
The AfD's interpretation: The meeting is said to have not been a "secret meeting", but rather a "private event".
The demands for remigration were not
uncovered by
Correctiv , but were already in the AfD party program.
“Three AfD members took part in a private event and heard a lecture.
That's all," said AfD member of the Bundestag Beatrix von Storch, for example, downplaying the events on Platform X (formerly Twitter).
“The AfD is trying to reverse the scandal with its target group,” Johannes Hillje explained the AfD’s strategy
to FR.de from IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Hillje is a political and communications consultant and has already written several books about the communication strategies of right-wing populists.
“The AfD uses a practiced communication cycle of appeasement, political ambivalence, victimization and counterattacks on the media and other parties,” Hillje continued.
“Because their supporters have a high degree of distrust in the established media and parties, this strategy works.”
Political consultant and author Johannes Hillje explained the AfD's communication strategy in an interview with FR.de from IPPEN.MEDIA.
(Archive image) © Mauersberger/imago-images
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Weidel’s all-round attack on politics and the media – “GDR methods” from “left-wing activists”
The cycle mentioned by Hillje can also be demonstrated by the press conference of AfD chairmen Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla on Tuesday (January 16).
Weidel also explained there that the event was not a “secret meeting”, but rather just a “private encounter”.
The AfD leader acknowledged remigration.
However, the aim of the AfD is to take action against illegal migration using “constitutional means”.
In her statement, Weidel launched a verbal all-round attack on the German media and party landscape.
In recent days, your party has been exposed to one of the “biggest and most outrageous media and political scandals in Germany”.
Correctiv
described the AfD leader as a “left-wing activist network” and spoke of “GDR methods” with regard to the reporting.
The nomination of the term remigration as the “bad word of the year” is also a scandal for Weidel.
“The enforcement of current law is declared morally unspeakable and unthinkable,” said the AfD politician.
“Remigration” in focus – This is how the AfD’s language strategy works
For Hillje, this debate on terms in particular shows a classic strategy of the right-wing populists: "The term remigration is a typical example of the AfD's language strategy; it uses neutral and harmless-sounding terms and changes their meaning with its own, more radical definition of the term," said Hillje.
“Remigration thus becomes a linguistic cover, a euphemism for the large-scale and unlawful displacement of undesirable people.”
This strategy has really gotten rolling on social networks in the last few days.
More and more X users added a frame to their profile pictures that read “Team #Remigration.”
The campaign was launched by Bundestag member Matthias Helferich.
The 35-year-old entered the Bundestag via the AfD's state list in North Rhine-Westphalia, but decided not to join the parliamentary group after his election due to radical verbal gaffes in the past.
Helferich described himself as the “friendly face of the Nazis” in private chats from 2016/17, as reported by
Spiegel
, among others .
“Remigration” stickers on special offer: AfD is drumming up advertising on social media
The state chairman of the AfD in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, said briefly about
Anna Leisten, the state chairwoman of Junge Alternatives (JA) in Brandenburg, once again shared a special offer from the youth organization's online shop: 50 stickers with the inscription “Remigration - the only answer to rejected asylum seekers” now cost 30 cents less.
The term remigration is flourishing in social networks.
The AfD always seems to succeed in reinterpreting emerging scandals - at least in their circles - in their favor.
This strategy is obviously working, especially among her supporters.
“The AfD is not harming its core electorate, but it is also concerned with its ability to connect with the mainstream of society,” said Hillje, assessing the impact of the
Correctiv
research.
Communications consultant about the AfD – “political representation for certain radical positions”
“The AfD therefore sends a double message after such scandals; it operates with strategic ambivalence.
It puts things into perspective for the media and democratic society and dismisses an employee as a pawn.
But towards the right-wing extremist milieu and its core constituency, it simultaneously assures that it is the political representative for certain radical positions.”
The party already found the pawn sacrifice on Tuesday.
Weidel separated from her personal advisor Roland Hartwig.
The decision was made “in connection with the meeting in Potsdam”.
Hartwig was one of the AfD politicians who took part in the meeting.
In addition to Hartwig, the AfD member of the Bundestag Gerrit Huy, the AfD parliamentary group leader in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, and the deputy chairman in the Potsdam district, Tim Krause, were also present.
But breaking out of the AfD's strategic communication cycle seems difficult.
The scandals of the party's recent history have hardly harmed the AfD.
In the current polls for the federal election, the right-wing populists regularly rank above the 20 percent mark.
The AfD has a very good chance of becoming the strongest force in the upcoming state elections in the eastern German states in 2024.
AfD communication strategy – the public must “expose right-wing extremist concepts”
“The democratic public must uncover these attempts at reinterpretation and reveal the right-wing extremist concepts,” advises Hillje, in order to counteract the communication strategy.
“The social ideal of many AfD politicians consists of both an ethnically homogeneous and a politically homogeneous composition.
This means that people with a migration background, but also politically dissidents with German roots, should not be included.”
Hillje cited the AfD chairman from Thuringia as an example of this social image.
“Höcke speaks of parts of the population that will be lost, which is why he speaks of bloodletting.
A metaphor that expresses that people have to be displaced by their own blood, so to speak.” Höcke, who can be publicly described as a “fascist” after a court ruling in 2019, could be the big winner in the state elections in Thuringia in September .
In the polls, his party is currently well over 30 percent.
A success that can probably also be attributed to his party's communication strategy.
(fd)