When Martin Sellner visited Chemnitz, eastern Germany, on February 23, around three hundred demonstrators summoned by the Nazi-Free Chemnitz group ensured the Austrian agitator knew he was unwelcome. Sellner, former spokesperson of the radical-right Identitarian Movement Austria, has become infamous in Germany in recent weeks.

In January, independent investigative platform Correctiv reported that Sellner had presented his racist theses during a secret meeting organized by two businessmen in Potsdam. In attendance were members of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The CDU attendees were low-ranking figures, and the party is working on their expulsion. But the AfD participants included Roland Hartwig — at that time a personal aide to party coleader Alice Weidel, until the Correctiv revelations forced them to part ways — and Ulrich Siegmund, who is the AfD parliamentary leader in Saxony-Anhalt state.

Sellner’s presentation in Potsdam revolved around the concept of “remigration.” The term is not new but became ominously specific in the Potsdam meeting. According to the Austrian anti-immigration campaigner, a far-right government in Germany should plan the deportation of asylum seekers, non-Germans with residency rights, and “non-assimilated” German citizens. The Correctiv revelations have led to massive demonstrations in Germany against the far right. In the protest against Sellner in Chemnitz, one chant specifically countered his plan: “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here.”