Police in Saarbrücken announced on Friday that investigations had been launched into the suspicion of using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations. Sellner was in the Saarland state capital on Thursday evening to present a book he had written himself.
The group “Grandmas against the Right” registered a demonstration against the private event. According to police reports, Sellner attended the counter-demonstration and “provocatively” promoted his book there. He was also filmed and photographed by several people, it was said. Several of these recordings were then made available to the police with the note that they showed Sellner giving a Hitler salute.
Sellner is a leading figure in the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in German-speaking countries. According to research by the Correctiv network, he was also a speaker at the secret meeting of AfD members and right-wing extremists in Potsdam in November, where the mass expulsion of people with a migration background from Germany was said to have been discussed.
Action taken against entry ban
As a result, in March the city of Potsdam issued a ban on Sellner entering and staying in Germany. He successfully challenged this in an expedited procedure before the Potsdam Administrative Court. Because the city of Potsdam did not file an appeal, the decision became legally binding.
“From the FPÖ’s point of view, are the Identitarians still just an NGO, as Kickl claimed in the past, completely oblivious to history and trivializing the issue?” asked Olga Voglauer, General Secretary of the Greens, in a press release. “Will the FPÖ continue to seek proximity to an organization whose most famous face gives the Hitler salute?”
