Criticism of AfD top candidate Siegmund because of statements about armaments

Saxony-Anhalt's AfD leading candidate Ulrich Siegmund has provoked harsh criticism from several parties with a statement in which he linked arms production and deportations. The criticism also comes from the BSW, which is the only party elected to the Magdeburg state parliament and wants to hold talks with the AfD.

Specifically, after the AfD's inaugural parliamentary group meeting, Siegmund answered a journalist's question about the planned settlement of an Israeli arms company: "We are not demonizing the production of armaments across the board, because we will of course also need appropriate aids for (the) later remigration and deportation offensive. Of course also in the sense of internal security, one’s own stability and also national defense.”

"Ulrich Siegmund's statements mark a new quality," said the chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Pähle. "Anyone who brings military equipment into play in the announced mass expulsion of people from Saxony-Anhalt is talking about violence as a political tool." It is not a misleading formulation, but a political threat.

The AfD supports increased armaments and “justifies the settlement of the Israeli arms company Elbit with the commitment to ‘remigration’,” wrote BSW co-chair Fabio De Masi. "That shows they don't want to govern at all and are desperately looking for a way out through provocation."