German police investigate AfD for sending out 'deportation tickets'

Police have launched an investigation into the local branch of the far-right AfD party in the city of Karlsruhe over campaign posters styled as "deportation tickets" sparked controversy in the run-up to the country's election on 23 February.

The flyers, which are based on airplane tickets, are being investigated on suspicion of inciting racial hatred according to the criminal police force in Karlsruhe. They show an airline ticket with the AfD's logo on it with manipulated flight details reading "departure: Germany" and "destination: safe country of origin."

On the flyers, "AfD" is entered as the departure gate, and two sentences read, "Only remigration can save Germany" and, "It's nice at home too".

The flyers have sparked complaints from the public as well as members of the Left party who threatened to report the AfD district branch for inciting hatred.

The Left argued that the flyers were purposefully distributed in mailboxes of people with a migration background, were openly xenophobic and aimed at stoking division and hatred between different groups.

The AfD's Baden-Württemberg state branch insisted that the flyers were aimed at all eligible voters with a large part simply based in Karlsruhe, according to press agency dpa. It said a template of the poster would be passed on to the party's other local branches. Despite this, a police spokesman said that the flyers are currently under investigation.

German media pointed out the campaign's similarity to one pushed by the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which has since been renamed the Heimat, in 2013. At the time, the right-wing extremist party distributed forged flight tickets reading "From Germany — destination home" in a bid to discourage candidates from an immigrant background from standing for parliament.

The campaign sparked tense controversy and was labelled "xenophobic propaganda" by analysts. The NPD has since been barred from receiving state funding and tax breaks usually granted to Germany's political parties after days of protests against the far-right.

AfD politician Marc Bernhard rejected any association with the NPD, telling local media: "We categorically reject any connection with an action by the NPD that took place more than a decade ago, which is completely unknown to us."

The campaign, however, seems to be in lockstep with the AfD's policies on immigration, with the party's chancellor candidate Alice Weidel openly embracing the term "remigration" at the party's conference in the eastern town of Riesa over the weekend.

"Remigration" is a vague strategy widely understood to mean the mass deportation of people with a migrant background. However, reports differ on whether this would include foreigners who have legal residency rights.

Weidel's move is a U-turn from just a year ago when she sought to distance herself from the term, which sparked national protests when it emerged a senior AfD party member had met with controversial Austrian far-right activist Martin Sellner to discuss "remigrating" foreigners with residency rights and "non-assimilated" citizens.

The concept has also been promoted by Austria's hard-right politician Herbert Kickl, who has recently been invited to lead coalition talks after coming first in general elections.

The latest INSA poll puts the AfD in second place with 22% of the national vote. Other parties, including the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is polling first, have ruled out working with them, meaning they are unlikely to make it into government bar a political earthquake in the country.