Germany's far-right seeks to deport Ukrainian refugees

The leadership of the Bavarian branch of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has spoken out in favor of the immediate expulsion of Ukrainian refugees from the country.

These were the words of Katrin Ebner-Steiner, the head of the AfD faction in the Bavarian state parliament.

On January 14-15, the Bavarian branch of the AfD held a meeting in Regensburg, following which it published two program documents: "Plan for the Future, a New Start for Bavaria" and "Package Against Islamization." They do not say a word about Ukraine, they only talk about "remigration" and "deportation of criminals and foreigners without a residence permit."

On January 16, in a comment on the Sat.1 television channel, Ebner-Steiner stated the demand for "remigration so that this country does not become further Islamized." "Bavaria needs remigration," the politician wrote on the social network X on January 17.

However, SZ correspondent Johann Osel, who attended the Bavarian AfD meeting, writes that Ebner-Steiner also spoke about the expulsion of Ukrainians.

The AfD representative stated that Ukraine is a large country with "enough territory" to return to. According to her estimate, including Ukrainians, the number of those who could be deported from Germany is approaching two million people.

She called for "large-scale remigration" so that Bavaria would not be "filled with welfare recipients who do not want to integrate" and advocated for the introduction of a "refugee emergency" in the region to deny them placement.

AfD - opposition party in Bavaria

In the Bavarian state parliament, the AfD has 32 of the 203 seats. The region is governed by a coalition of the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Free Voters. The next state elections are not due until autumn 2028. However, the local AfD is currently campaigning for the early elections to the Bundestag on 23 February.

On January 15, a debate was held on the BR24 TV channel, in which Stephan Protschka, a member of the Bundestag and head of the Bavarian branch of the AfD, participated.

He confirmed that the party is calling for the expulsion of "millions" of migrants. When asked how this is planned to be done, the politician replied that Syria and Afghanistan are countries that have already "reconciled", so "1.2 to 1.3 million Syrians" and "700 thousand Afghans" could leave Germany. The politician added that there are also "Ukrainians who cannot be here."