Kay Gottschalk, the deputy chairman of the AfD, plans to attend the so‑called Remigration Summit in Porto this May, despite the party’s top leadership advising against holding any party events with Martin Sellner. “If the AfD front line hosts a summit, then for me that’s a duty event” Gottschalk told the news portal T‑Online on Tuesday. According to T‑Online, Sellner was announced as a speaker and co‑organiser of the summit.
Gottschalk said he didn’t understand the “drama”. “I listen to the ideas they have” he added. “If they have good ideas, I’d invite them to further talks. Why not?” He said he would meet Sellner at the event and talk with him. “I would also speak with Heidi Reichinnek or even Putin. We must not draw too many red lines”.
He sees no contradiction between the board’s earlier recommendation on Monday to avoid party events with Sellner and his own attendance at the summit. “Those two are unrelated” he said. “The board’s decision only concerns party events. The Remigration Summit is not a party event”.
Martin Sellner is identified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a central figure of the “Identitär‑Bauhaus” (Identity Movement), which the agency classifies as a firmly established far‑right extremist endeavour. In 2025, the Federal Administrative Court judged Sellner’s remigration concept to be incompatible with the inviolability of human dignity under Article 1 of the German Basic Law.