Switzerland imposes entry ban on far-right Austrian activist Martin Sellner

The entry ban against Martin Sellner is effective until October 27. Keystone-SDA

Switzerland has imposed an entry ban on the far-right Austrian extremist Martin Sellner. This prevents him from speaking at an event planned by the Swiss Junge Tat far-right group in canton Zurich on October 19.

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The order issued by the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) is valid for 18 days and also applies to Liechtenstein, Fedpol announced in the Federal Gazette on October 11.

The entry ban has been in place since October 10 and is valid until October 27. Sellner wanted to give a talk in canton Zurich on October 19 organised by the far-right Junge Tat movement. It had announced on the platform X: “Sellner is coming to canton Zurich”.

A similar lecture had been planned in Tegerfelden, canton Aargau, last March, but the Aargau cantonal police shut it down after the organisers failed to comply with a police request for the event to be cancelled. They intervened because they felt public safety was not guaranteed.

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At the time, the Zurich police had also asked Fedpol to ban Sellner from entering Switzerland, but the federal government had decided not to do so.

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Fedpol stated at the time: “Radical or extreme views alone are not sufficient grounds for a threat to internal or external security or to justify preventive police measures.”

Sellner is the former leader of the Identitarian Movement – classified in 2019 by Germany’s domestic intelligence service as an extreme right-wing group. He talks about “remigration”, a concept whereby some immigrants could be forced to leave a country – even if they have citizenship.

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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