German police are investigating a local branch of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party after people from migrant communities in Karlsruhe found AfD-branded “deportation tickets” in their letterboxes.

AfD investigated for racial hatred in Karlsruhe

On January 14, police in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, announced that an investigation had been launched against a local branch of the AfD “on suspicion of incitement of racial hatred”.

The announcement came after multiple people in the southwestern German city, including people from migrant communities, found AfD-branded flyers which resembled a plane ticket in their letterboxes.

The double-sided “deportation ticket” lists the passenger's name as an “illegal migrant” travelling on the flight “BTW 2025” (Bundestagswahl 2025 or federal election 2025) on February 23 (the election date) from Germany to a “secure country of origin”, departing from the airport gate “AFD”. The listed seat number "51P" may refer to paragraph 51 of German law, which details the Residence Act.

The boarding time listed on the ticket is "08-18:00", which is the opening hours of polling stations on election day in Germany. The numbers eight and 18 are also associated with international neo-Nazi codes. Representing the first and eighth letters in the alphabet, in neo-Nazi circles 18 may be used to communicate the initials “AH” for Adolf Hitler. However, whether the ticket's departure time refers to this code or just polling station hours remains unclear.

An article in the local newspaper Badische Neueste Nachrichten also pointed out that the ticket campaign resembles a similar action by the neo-Nazi NPD in 2013, during which the NPD’s branch in Berlin distributed “journey home tickets” to discourage candidates with migrant backgrounds from standing in the election. Similarly threatening campaigns were used during the Nazi-era, offering Jewish people free, one-way flights to Palestine.

AfD denies flyer distribution targeted foreigners

Speaking to German public broadcaster SWR, AfD politician Marc Bernhard said that the “deportation tickets” had also been given out at election stands, at the party’s conference in Saxony on January 11 and 12 and that Karlsruhe residents with “foreign-sounding names” were not targeted during letterbox distribution.

Criticism of the action has come from across the political spectrum and led to renewed calls for the German constitutional court to ban the far-right party on the basis that its politics threaten Germany’s democratic system and constitution (Grundgesetz). 

Widespread calls to ban the party began in January 2024, when an investigation by Correctiv found that AfD politicians had met with neo-Nazi activists to devise a “remigration” plan for non-German citizens and German citizens with a migrant background living in Germany. 

At the party conference in Saxony last weekend, AfD candidate for chancellor Alice Weidel embraced the term. "And I have to be honest with you: if it's going to be called remigration, then that's what it's going to be: remigration," Weidel told the audience according to the BBC, branding a counter-protests of thousands outside a “left-wing mob”.

With just over one month to go until Germany’s snap, federal election the AfD is polling in second place with 19,8 percent of the vote. The conservative CDU / CSU alliance is expected to win with around 30 percent of votes and is likely to form a coalition with the Social Democratic Party, Greens or Free Democrats. All of Germany’s large political parties have so far pledged not to form a coalition with the AfD.

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