The event was definitely not a “secret meeting,” Roger Beckamp, a member of the German Bundestag for the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) repeatedly stressed at the clandestine event in a restaurant in the small Swiss town of Kloten on December 14, attended by members of two well-known neo-Nazi groups. They had nothing to hide, Beckamp claimed, adding that he hoped “the whole thing will be put on the internet.”
The security precautions tell a different story. In order to register for the meeting, attendees reportedly had to send a copy of their ID and take part in a short video call to check their political persuasion
After the canton of Zurich banned the event, some of the attendees – many of whom sported slicked-down side-partings reminiscent of a certain historical far-right political leader – were told to wait at a car park, where they were shuttled by AfD members to an unknown location: the restaurant in Kloten.
Details of the far-right meeting in Switzerland came to light after an exposé by the Germany-based investigative platform Correctiv, published on Friday, whose reporter infiltrated the event, while photographers snapped the arriving attendees.
Among them were AfD politicians Roger Beckamp and Lena Kotré, a recently re-elected regional parliamentarian in the German state of Brandenburg, as well as members of the party’s embattled youth wing Junge Alternative (Young Alternative), which the party leadership is seeking to replace after a string of far-right scandals.
Tobias Lingg, Marcel Schweizer and Manuel Corchia were also in attendance – members of the Swiss neo-Nazi group Junge Tat (Young Action). Corchia, a leading member of the group who Correctiv also credited with co-organizing the event, was even directly addressed by the AfD’s Beckamp, praising him as someone who “has really burned himself for the project.” Junge Tat also handled registration for the event, according to a public Facebook post made by AfD politician Lena Kotré in advance. And the neo-Nazi group posted branded photos of the event afterward on its Telegram channel.
Junge Tat leader Manuel Corchia, 23 or 24 years old, was previously head of a neo-Nazi group called Eisenjugend – or “Iron Youth,” which saw itself as the Swiss arm of the US movement of the same name. Eisenjugend was preparing for a coming race war and posed in videos donning balaclavas and rifles.
Anti-Israel, Jewish sentiment
“The Jews, the Blacks and bureaucracy would very quickly die the death they richly deserve in a civil war,” the group wrote on their since deleted Telegram channel.
In one video, seen by The Jerusalem Post, a masked man burns the flags of Israel and the European Union. The group also shared the manifesto of the Christchurch shooter, who murdered 51 people in two New Zealand mosques in 2019.
In late 2020, after visits from the Swiss police relating to his political activity, Corchia founded Junge Tat. His rhetoric shifted from talk of an all-out “race war” to softer-sounding terms like “remigration,” championed by the far-right Identarian Movement and members of Germany’s AfD. But the balaclavas and Nazi imagery remained, with the group’s new logo featuring the Tyr rune used by both the SS and the Hitler Youth.
According to Swiss district attorneys, Junge Tat spreads “the ideology of National Socialism and degrades the human dignity of Jews and dark-skinned people.” Investigators found a stockpile of weapons including Kalashnikovs, pistols and shotguns when searching the homes of Corchia and another member.
Also at the AfD event in Switzerland were members of Blood & Honour, an international neo-Nazi network banned in Germany, Spain and Canada. The network had close ties to the German terror group Nationalist Socialist Underground – or NSU – which murdered ten people and carried out several bombings in the 2000s.
“Remigration” was a key topic of the evening in Kloten, Switzerland, Correctiv reported – an idea popularized by the far-right Austrian activist Martin Sellner, who penned a book of the same name. A previous clandestine meeting with Sellner and AfD members in Potsdam, Germany, was the subject of an investigation by the outlet in January. The term refers to the mass deportation of foreigners and even German citizens with an immigrant background. Correctiv provided recordings for several parts of the discussion in Kloten.
The AfD did not respond to a request for comment by The Jerusalem Post before publication. The party has so far not commented on the allegations via its official channels.
But Roger Beckamp and Lena Kotré – the two AfD politicians who spoke at the event – have since doubled down, claiming to have done nothing wrong and mocking Correctiv. Kotré wrote on social media that the investigative platform merely summarized the party’s election manifesto and sold it as a scoop.
Meanwhile, the neo-Nazi group Junge Tat has responded to Correctiv’s investigation by publishing Beckamp’s speech and discussion with Kotré in full on their YouTube channel on Monday, as well as hosting a live stream on X in order to “analyze” the investigation.
The scandal has added more fuel to the political fire surrounding the future of the AfD, ahead of the German election on February 23. Similar allegations in the past have done little to dampen support for the far-right party, which is currently polling at around 18 percent and could form the next opposition.
Some 113 members of the Bundestag from various parties had already prepared a motion still due to be voted on calling for a ban of the far-right party. Since the Correctiv investigation, these calls have become louder.
“A ban can’t wait any longer!” wrote Kassem Taher Saleh, a member of the Bundestag for the Green Party, on the social media platform X.
Martina Renner, an expert on the far right and a Bundestag member of the Left Party, also renewed her demand for a ban of the AfD on Bluesky: “I really don’t know how many more investigations we need,” she wrote, adding that “you can’t even fit a piece of paper” between the AfD and militant neo-Nazi organizations.