A journalistic watchdog has published a scathing review of a prior report from a George Soros-funded group, which alleged members of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party were holding a secret conference to discuss deporting all people with a migration background from Germany, even if they are citizens.
The Übermedien expert group slammed the leftist activist group Correctiv for its misrepresentation of the facts. The watchdog also blasted the German mainstream media for being entirely uncritical of the claims made by Correctiv about a conference in Potsdam earlier this year that was attended by members of the AfD and Austrian anti-mass migration activist Martin Sellner.
The Correctiv report, which won awards in German media and sparked left-wing protests involving hundreds of thousands of people, is deeply flawed, according to the watchdog, noting a recent court case in which Correctiv outright admitted there was no formal talk of plans for the mass expulsions of migrants by the AfD.
“It has long been obvious how problematic Correctiv reporting and its reception are. And at the same time, how much a critical examination of it is lacking in large parts of the serious press,” the watchdog said.
FAKE REPORTS PROMPTED BANS FROM GERMANY.
Martin Sellner spoke at the Potsdam conference about the “remigration” of illegals and those who refuse to integrate into German society to their homelands, but Correctiv was accused by Übermedien of taking a few fragments of sentences he said, twisting them, and comparing his ideas to Nazi ethnic cleansing.
The watchdog was especially disturbed by the comparison to the Wannsee conference made by Correctiv in its reporting. The Wannsee conference was the first major meeting to decide on the implementation of what would become the Holocaust.
As a result of the misleading report, Martin Sellner was banned from entering Germany, despite the internal open borders of the European Union (EU) and the close links between Germany and Austria.
The ban was overturned by a German court in June.
SOROS GROUP INVENTED ‘DEPORTATION OF MILLIONS’ PLAN.
Übermedien also notes that only two people in the conference spoke about remigration, but Correctiv implied that the entire conference was actively planning to deport millions of people from Germany.
The Correctiv report even opened by saying, “High-ranking AfD politicians, neo-Nazis and financially strong entrepreneurs came together in November in a hotel near Potsdam. They planned nothing less than the expulsion of millions of people from Germany.”
Correctiv had to note that Sellner had not said that he wanted to use unlawful means to deport anyone, and that others had even said deporting those with German passports was impossible.
REPORT DIVIDED THE POPULIST RIGHT.
The Correctiv report also had some repercussions on the AfD’s relations with other European populist parties. French National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen said she was reconsidering her party’s then-alliance with the AfD because of the report.
Following the European Parliament elections, the AfD had to go its own way and split from other leading populist parties, forming the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group along with other smaller parties from across Europe.
Le Pen and others joined with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban to form the Patriots for Europe group, whhile Italy’s Giorgia Meloni remains in the more establishment-friendly European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), effectively splitting the populist right.
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