The right-wing extremist Martin Sellner was arrested in Kreuzlingen

(sda)/obe/tma. The Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner was arrested in the canton of Thurgau. Sellner crossed the border into Switzerland near Konstanz and was immediately taken away by the Thurgau cantonal police, as can be seen in a video streamed live by Sellner on Saturday morning.

The Thurgau cantonal police confirmed to the NZZ that a 35-year-old person had been stopped and taken away for further clarification. An entry ban was issued against the person in question by the Thurgau cantonal police and this now applies to the whole of Switzerland, says a police spokesman.

Entry bans must be handed over personally by the authorities. If the person is already in Switzerland at the time of handover, they will be escorted to the national border. It can be assumed that this is currently happening in the Sellner case. It is unclear whether Sellner could not have been handed an entry ban at an earlier point in time.

The police are currently not providing any further information because the operation is still ongoing. Failure to comply with the ban will result in a prison sentence of up to one year or a fine.

Young Tat invited Sellner to Zurich

Sellner wanted to give a lecture on the subject of remigration in the canton of Zurich on Saturday evening. The term stands for the mass deportation of foreigners with integration difficulties.

The right-wing extremist group Junge Tat announced the lecture on social networks. The Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) therefore issued Sellner an entry ban on October 11th until October 27th.

When asked by the NZZ, Fedpol did not disclose why the entry ban was imposed on Sellner. It explains that Fedpol can, in principle, impose entry bans and expulsions “to protect the internal or external security of Switzerland”. These were carried out “as preventative police measures based on a comprehensive case-by-case review,” as a spokesman said.

The focus is on “defending specific security threats”. Preventive police measures must be proportionate. Fedpol must therefore carefully weigh up the interests at stake.

Sellner called the entry ban “censorship”

A week ago, Sellner himself commented on the entry ban in a video message published on X and criticized it as “censorship” and “repression”. His lecture will definitely take place despite the ban. He and his Swiss friends would use a few tricks to achieve this.

Sellner had already traveled to Switzerland last March to speak about “ethnic choice and remigration” in Tegerfelden, Aargau. Young Tat had also invited him back then. The Aargau cantonal police prevented the lecture at the last minute.

Sellner attracted a lot of attention this year with his book “Remigration – a suggestion”. In it he calls for the deportation of numerous people with foreign roots from European countries. He became known primarily in connection with a publication by the research network Correctiv. This made it public that Sellner had spoken to entrepreneurs and members of the AfD and the CDU about remigration in Potsdam last November. The research sparked mass protests in Germany.

The day before in a German rocker bar

Wherever Sellner goes, he gets the authorities going. On Friday he gave a lecture in the German city of Ulm. This despite a ban on appearances.

According to German media, Sellner is said to have performed in a former rocker’s bar in front of 20 to 30 visitors. The police searched the bar with a large number and broke up the meeting, but Sellner had already left. After the police operation, Sellner reported on the “X” platform (formerly “Twitter”) with comments about the operation.