Several hundred people took to the streets of the German university town of Marburg on Monday evening to protest against a planned book reading by extreme-right Austrian author and activist Martin Sellner.

Local police said around 700 protesters gathered on Marburg's central market square during the afternoon, a figure which local mayor Thomas Spies expected to increase to a "significant four-figure number."

Spies, of the Social Democrats (SPD) said he was expecting residents to send a "clear signal" against "crude theories and inhumane comments."

"A clear position against right-wing extremism is part of my oath of office. There should be no place for it, here or anywhere else," he added. 

Vienna-born Sellner, 35, is considered a key figure in the so-called "Identitarian movement," officially categorized as an extreme right movement by Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz).

What is 'remigration?'

In November 2023, Sellner was a speaker at a meeting of figures from the German-speaking far right in Potsdam, near Berlin, at which he presented his so-called "Remigration" theory – a plan for the mass deportation of what he termed "non-assimilated" German citizens, as well as asylum seekers and certain holders of German residency permits.

The meeting was exposed by the German investigative portal Correctiv, leading to mass protests against the far-right across Germany.

In Marburg on Monday evening, Sellner is due to read from his new book in which he details his idea of a "model state" where he proposes to resettle (or "remigrate") up to two million people, in particular, Afghan refugees.

The reading was scheduled to take place at one of the university town's Burschenschaften – German student fraternities that date back to the 19th century, some of which exhibit staunchly conservative and even far-right tendencies.

Two such fraternities in Marburg known for their links to the "Identitarian movement" distanced themselves from Sellner, telling local media outlet Hessenschau that they were not hosting the reading.

How did Marburg officials respond?

The Marburg town council, with the exception of lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said ahead of the planned event: "The university town of Marburg deplores in the strongest terms that Martin Sellner wants to propagate theories regarding the deportation of some of our residents."

It called such theories "a danger for our cohesion as well as for democracy and the constitution in our country."

Several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom have imposed travel bans on Sellner. In March, a court in Potsdam issued a German entry ban ahead of a previous reading, but the Austrian had it overturned by emergency appeal.

Approached by Hessenschau, Sellner rejected allegations that his theories are inhumane or a threat to social cohesion.

mf/wmr (epd, dpa)