Martin Sellner: Switzerland expels Austrian far-right figure

Martin Sellner, a well-known figure in the European far-right scene, was stopped  by Swiss authorities on Saturday near a border crossing with Germany.

The 35-year-old Sellner had been invited to a gathering of an extremist organization Junge Tat (Young Deed) in Switzerland's most populous city, Zurich. The police had already disrupted a similar Junge Tat event in March and deported Sellner.

Earlier this month, Swiss authorities announced a temporary entry ban against the activist on security grounds. But Sellner apparently ignored the ban and tried to reach Zurich from Germany on Saturday morning.

"Shortly after 10:30 a. m., a 35-year-old person was stopped by forces of the Thurgau cantonal police on Swiss territory in Kreuzlingen and taken away for further investigation," a police spokesman told the AFP news agency.

A spokesman later said the person was escorted back to the border and out of Switzerland.

Conquest of 'key positions' in 'state apparatus'

Sellner is best known for his idea of "remigration" which foresees mass deportation of immigrants, including millions of German citizens who fail to assimilate.

The campaigner says that it is not enough for foreigners in Europe to "pay taxes and not break the law" — they should also "identify with the country and with the people"  of their new homeland. In one of his recent books, Sellner urged "the conquest of key positions in the ideological state apparatus such as the university, the press, the street, art and culture" in order to force politicians to either "implement our demands" or make space for right-wing leaders.

Sellner joined the neo-Nazi scene in Austria as a teenager and was mentored by known Holocaust denier Gottfied Küssel.

"When I was young, I was in this right-wing subculture, and I have never made a secret of it," Sellner told DW's Conflict Zone in April.

Until recently, Sellner was also among the leading voices of the Identitarian Movement, which calls for an ethnically homogenous Europe.

Donation from Christchurch attacker

Switzerland is not the first country to ban Sellner from entering. In 2018, the UK prevented the Austrian national from entering Britain, and he was eventually permanently banned in 2019 on national security grounds.

In the same year, Sellner was forced to deny links between the Identitarian Movement and the terrorist who killed over 50 people in two New Zealand mosques in Christchurch. Previously, it was discovered that the shooter had donated 2,300 Australian dollars (€1,419, $1,543) to the Austrian branch of the Identitarian Movement.

Sellner, who in 2019 was engaged to his present-day wife Brittany Pettibone, also complained of his US travel permit being cancelled by American authorities.

A German court also banned Sellner from entering the country in March this year, but he appealed the verdict, with a higher court temporarily lifting the ban and saying more evidence needed to be provided to show that Sellner is a serious threat to public safety.

dj/wd (AFP, dpa)