Stora tråden om AfD

Various figures from the German and Austrian far-right scene, including some noteworthy members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, attended a low-key meeting in a Potsdam hotel to discuss topics including a "remigration" plan that would permit the deportation of people who had moved to Germany, an investigative report by the German non-profit research institute Correctiv published on Wednesday

That the meeting took place at the Landhaus Aldon guesthouse (pictured above) is relatively uncontroversial, but precisely what was discussed remains highly disputed. Participants said their recollections of the event differed from the published report.

Writing on the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Scholz said: "We will not allow someone to determine who is 'We' in our country according to whether a person has a history of immigration or not."

"We protect everyone — regardless of origin, skin color or how uncomfortable someone is for fanatics with assimilation fantasies," he wrote.

"Anyone opposing our free democratic order is a case for our domestic intelligence and the judiciary," he went on. "It is no mere lip service that we learn from history. Democrats must stand together."