An investigative research as a staged reading – in the sold-out Berliner Ensemble, the audience watches with fascination as right-wing activists and politicians are said to have consulted with each other.
A week after initial reports of a meeting between right-wing activists and politicians from the AfD and CDU in Potsdam, the media company Correctiv has revealed further details. During a staged reading from the investigative research in the Berliner Ensemble, the journalists made new allegations against one of the participants public. According to Correctiv, it is about an employee of an AfD member of the Bundestag and alleged actions against left-wing activists.
The man named by Correctiv confirmed to the German Press Agency upon request that he was present at the Potsdam meeting on November 25th and was an employee of a member of the Bundestag. However, he “spoke on that day in my job as a freelance journalist and only mentioned in passing that he was an employee of a member of the Bundestag.” He denied some of the new allegations from the staged reading in the theater.
20 to 30 people in Potsdam
The remaining information now presented to the public has been known since last week. Central point: The former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, spoke about a concept for so-called remigration at the Potsdam meeting in November. When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress. AfD politicians also use the term in public.
AfD officials as well as individual members of the CDU and the ultra-conservative Values Union took part in the meeting, as has now been confirmed by those involved. According to Correctiv, 20 to 30 people were said to have gathered. The purpose of the meeting is also said to have been to collect donations for right-wing activities.
“What we are telling you today is true”
In the theater, actors read the results of the extensive research with assigned roles. Dressed formally, they grouped themselves around a white-covered table on the stage and took on the roles of the various participants.
It became somewhat clearer how Correctiv obtained the information. Among other things, the media company said it rented a sauna boat and took photos of the villa from there with a telephoto lens. A person with a clock also filmed inside the building. The journalists also referred to “memory protocols” from participants.
“What we are telling you today is true,” assured the actors on stage. According to her, some scenes were also partially “fictionalized” – the core of the statements was made that way, but not the entire wording. Sellner and other participants disputed some details from the research last week. The AfD and the Union of Values downplayed the importance of the meeting and criticized Correctiv.
“Great achievement of free journalism”
Nevertheless, the effect is enormous. In the sold-out theater, the audience applauded for minutes after the reading, which was also broadcast in other theaters and on the Internet. There were also chants from the audience: “All together against fascism.” The journalist Michel Friedman praised the research after the presentation as a “great achievement of free journalism.”
In an interview with Sat1, Friedman called for commitment against the AfD with a view to the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in the fall. “We still have nine months left,” he said. “We haven’t given up yet.” Regarding the debate about a possible AfD ban, Friedman said that this possibility exists legally. Whether it is politically expedient needs to be discussed. Because such a ban would take a lot of time.
Thousands on the streets again
Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner expressed skepticism. “I would like the AfD not to exist, but I am critical of a ban,” said the CDU politician to the Germany editorial network. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) also told the RND: “I am against a ban on the AfD because it is not enough to ban right-wing extremism on paper, but inhuman ideas must be combated in people’s minds.”
Bundestag Vice President Aydan Özoguz from the SPD, on the other hand, told Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg: “It is not enough to state that parts of the AfD are definitely classified as right-wing extremist, but we must now really examine whether this party is a danger to the Federal Republic of Germany.”
Since the publication of the Correctiv research, tens of thousands have demonstrated against right-wing extremism in many cities. According to the organizers, 10,000 people came together in Freiburg on Wednesday evening. The police assumed there were 6,000 to 7,000 people. According to the police, around 3,500 people marched in front of the Red Town Hall in Berlin.
