JSVP strategy chief claims to have known nothing about Sellner
Published: Sunday, Apr 7th 2024, 01:30
Updated At: Sunday, Apr 7th 2024, 01:40
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The Young SVP's head of strategy, Sarah Regez, said she did not know the speakers at an event with the Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner in May 2023.
At the time, she was an active member of the "Massnahmenkritiker" and took part in a political event almost every evening, said Regez in an interview with the Sonntagszeitung newspaper. She was taken to the event with Sellner by a colleague "without knowing what it was about".
"I didn't even know the name Sellner back then", Regez continued. She also had no idea who had organized the event. She only remembers that she found the first presentation very boring and that the speakers obviously didn't leave a lasting impression on her.
Only recently heard from Sellner
She had only recently heard of Sellner when the media reported on the canceled event with him in Aargau. She was therefore "completely surprised" when Sonntagsblick wrote that she had taken part in an event with him.
In mid-March, the Aargau cantonal police prevented a speech by right-wing extremist Sellner. The event had been organized by "Junge Tat". The Aargau section of the JSVP initially showed solidarity with Sellner, but later distanced itself from right-wing extremist positions.
"Secret meeting is complete nonsense"
On March 31, "Sonntagsblick" reported that Regez had taken part in a secret meeting with Sellner in May 2023, which was also attended by members of the far-right group "Junge Tat". Six other cantonal JSVP sections then called on Regez to resign from her position as head of strategy.
The term "secret meeting" is "complete nonsense", said the SVP young politician. Everyone should know that she had been to this and many other events. However, one should not conclude from this that she automatically shares the opinion of the speakers.
In her opinion, the media coverage is "an orchestrated campaign" against the Junge SVP, against JSVP President Nils Fiechter and herself. A "non-event" is being used as an opportunity "to shoot at a democratically legitimized party from all sides".
Sellner wants to deport foreigners
Sellner used to be the head of Austria's far-right Identitarian movement and is now banned from entering Germany. According to his new book with the same title, he understands remigration to mean that people with foreign roots have to leave Germany en masse, including people with a German passport and also under duress.
She had also used the word in her tweets, said Regez. However, she understood the term to have the original semantic meaning of "return migration". And thus it stands for everything that the SVP has always demanded: That criminal and illegal migrants should be deported and that the mass immigration and deportation initiatives should be consistently implemented.
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