Europe’s far-right movements are actively pursuing a “remigration” agenda, a policy designed to facilitate the departure of non-white citizens over the next two to three decades. This strategy, rooted in controversial “Great Replacement” theories, has gained significant traction and normalisation, as evidenced by recent high-profile gatherings and political endorsements across the Global North.
A month ago, extremist activists from the Identitarian Movement convened with international far-right leaders to discuss this burgeoning policy. This follows revelations in January 2024 by the German investigative paper Correctiv, which exposed a secretive meeting held on November 25, 2023, in Potsdam. This meeting brought together an influential group including members of the rising far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and its fringe split-off, the “Value Union” (Werteunion), represented by a former director of the domestic intelligence service BVT.
During the Potsdam discussions, participants explored “remigration” as a response to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which posits that hidden powers are planning to replace Europe’s white, Christian population with non-white peoples of other cultures, religions, and traditions, particularly Muslims. The theory, originated by French author Renaud Camus, has various iterations, including “Eurabia” (alleging European political elites conspire with Middle East/North Africa leaders to replace native populations with Muslim immigrants) and the claim that Jewish billionaire George Soros plans to infiltrate Europe with African and Muslim immigrants. Aspects of these conspiracies also manifest as an alleged leftist-Islamist alliance, termed Islamo-Gauchisme, echoing antisemitic concepts like Judeo-Bolshevism.
Aware of the unconstitutional nature of directly expelling non-white individuals, the Potsdam attendees focused on finding legal pathways for “remigration.” Suggestions included creating pressure to compel “non-desirable populations” to leave voluntarily. Crucially, this plan was intended to encompass German citizens, differentiating between those of white and non-white descent, with the stated aim to “secure the ethnocultural continuity of European nations,” as later articulated by Sellner. The ultimate goal, in essence, is to “re-whiten the Western world” by establishing what they envision as homogenous white societies, pushing non-white populations back to their or their ancestors’ countries of origin.
The exposure of the Potsdam meeting sparked widespread protests across Germany, with thousands taking to the streets against the rising political movement. While the AfD felt compelled to issue a full explanation distancing itself from the idea of deporting non-white citizens, stating it was not their understanding of “remigration,” the concept paradoxically became normalised, allowing the party to use the notion “in a playful way.” Similarly, the French National Rally, initially hesitant, embraced the idea after it was adopted by the Donald Trump administration, which, under MAGA, proclaimed the establishment of a US State Department Office of Remigration focused on reducing immigration. This recognition by a leading global power has elevated “remigration” beyond a marginal idea.
Against this backdrop of a shift towards “Making the West White Again,” the second “Remigration Summit” was organised by the pan-European Identitarian Movement on May 30 at the Quinta da Salmanha venue in Figueira da Foz, Portugal. This summit, following a first convention in Milan, Italy, in May 2025, has gained momentum from harsh deportation policies in the US. It drew over 500 participants, including representatives from leading political parties and movements across Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and the United States.
According to the organisers’ official website, the summit aims at “shaping the future of Europe and the West through sovereignty, identity, and demographic renewal”—a euphemism for creating racially pure Western societies. They define “remigration” as “the answer to decades of replacement migration and multiculturalism that have disintegrated our nations to the point of dysfunction.” The proposed process, spanning 20-30 years, seeks to facilitate “returning illegal immigrants and harmful legal migrants, and putting pressure on the non-assimilated parallel societies to reharmonise the nation culturally.”
The concept of “parallel societies,” a German invention, attributes alleged self-separation to non-white populations, such as guest workers enlisted half a century ago and concentrated in poor areas. This framework places blame on these communities rather than on the original host societies that often treated them as racialised working poor expected to return home. The term “non-assimilated parallel societies” specifically refers to communities, particularly Muslims, that maintain their religious identities rather than assimilating, a stance that directly contradicts the AfD’s claims regarding the legality and constitutionality of these proposed measures.
Notably, the recent summit featured two American “VIP guests”: Gregory Bovino, the self-styled “Nazi-look” former chief of the US Border Patrol, and American white nationalist Jared Taylor. Bovino, known for leading brutal crackdowns and theatrically televised deportations by ICE on American streets—and dismissed after agents under his command killed a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis—celebrated sharing his “expertise” on tackling “illegal aliens destroying European culture.”
The normalisation of this idea is further underscored by America’s broader shift to the extreme right. Days ago, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth criticised European political elites during a commemoration speech in France for their immigration policies, describing “dangerous ideologies” storming the continent’s shores as an “invasion.” The 47th president himself, during a trip to Europe, had more bluntly urged European leaders to “stop this horrible invasion” because “this immigration is killing Europe.”
As the far-right rallies to institutionalise the idea of “remigration” to remove its non-white population, Europe’s future hinges significantly on the strength of anti-fascist positions pushing back against the normalisation of this racist ideology.
Hence, they discussed how remigration could take place by legal means. It was suggested that pressure should be created to push out non-desirable populations so they would leave themselves.
While the immediate reaction was people taking to the streets and protesting these ideas and the rapprochement of individuals from the far-right and the centre-right, other political actors from the far-right such as the leaders of the Austrian far-right FPÖ fully embraced these ideas.
