Immigrant members of Germany’s right-wing AfD party seek to dispel accusations of racism

The latest court challenge follows a 2021 ruling that placed the AfD under investigation as a suspected right-wing extremist party at the national level, bringing it a step closer to being banned.

Should the AfD win the case at the Higher Administrative Court, it would boost the legitimacy of the party, which recently suffered a setback after a huge protest wave in Germany.

The mass demonstrations drew attention to the extreme racist policies of the party, and in particular the plans for mass deportation of citizens of foreign origin. The AfD has denied that this is official policy, and is trying to dispel accusations of racism. 

Also read: Germany: How support for the right is rising along with migration

In the Münster court on Wednesday (March 13), three AfD members came to the party’s defence.

Meysam Ehtemai, a former mayoral and parliamentary candidate, said: “At no time was I disadvantaged because of my ethnicity in the party or deprived of my rights.” Ehtemai, who came to Germany from Iran as a refugee, describes himself as a “German citizen of Persian roots”.

Another party member was Nigerian-born Catherine Ajagun Schmiedel. “I got interested in politics after I noticed how Germany was changing with mass immigration, and as a mother I was concerned,” said Schmiedel, who contrasted her “safe place” in the AfD with social media, where she said she had been called a “Black Nazi”.

Anti-migrant party manifesto

The party members’ statements contrast with the AfD’s xenophobic platform. The party’s manifesto states that Islam does not belong in Germany and that Muslims threaten the German state, society and values.

Senior AfD figures have said that immigrants trying to enter Germany should be shot or gassed, warned against Germany’s “Africanization”, called migrants “invasive species” and dismissed as “passport Germans” naturalized immigrants.

A lawyer of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Wolfgang Roth, said the statements from Ehtemai and Schmiedel, as well as Athanasios Robert Lambroug, the German-born son of a Greek immigrant — had little bearing on the case.

The case, titled “AfD vs Federal Republic of Germany”, had originally been due to wrap up in two days, but due to several AfD concerns, including questions about whether the BfV had spied on the party prior to the proceedings, the hearing had to be adjourned to an unspecified future date.

With Reuters