The Federal Police had actually issued several Identitarians with a travel ban, but they still flew to the “Remigration Summit 2025” in Italy. Upon their return, officers were waiting to place them in handcuffs. Are those affected facing prison sentences?
German police armed with machine guns stopped German Identitarian Movement (IB) activists after they landed back in Germany at Munich Airport, and they now face a year in prison simply for leaving the country to attend a conference.
The activists also shot video of the heavily armed police officers stopping them.
Direkt pic.twitter.com/7yjauBDX0M
— moritz.bayern (@BayernMoritz) May 20, 2025
The conference in question, the “Remigration Summit 2025,” was hosted in Milan, Italy, and attended by a wide range of Europeans, including Austria’s Martin Sellner, Eva Vlaardingerbroek and French MEP Jean-Yves Le Gallou. They delivered speeches and shared ideas on why they believe Europe needs remigration.
In a video, three of the activists stated that they were met by “15 heavily armed federal police officers who had printouts of our faces in front of them so they could immediately identify us as serious criminals.”
Eight German activists, including six men and two women, were originally banned from attending the summit after German police detained them for hours at the Munich Airportand seized their electronic devices before the event. The police then issued them a travel ban, with the reasoning that their attendance at the Remigration Summit could be seen as a threat to the reputation of the German Republic.
However, five of these activists chose to ignore the ban and travel to the summit despite the potential consequences.
The X account of the Identitarian Movement wrote that the activists “did not allow themselves to be intimidated,” and further wrote: “There is only one correct response to a travel ban: civil disobedience.”
Upon arriving at the airport on their return flight, the activists were detained once again. This time, their phones were also seized and not returned.
Due to their violation of the two-day travel ban and the reporting requirements, which ordered them to check in with a police station twice a day, they now face a criminal case, along with administrative offense proceedings. If convicted, they could be sentenced to a maximum of one year in prison.
An initial urgent application to rescind the travel ban was rejected by the Munich Administrative Court.
The Munich Federal Police Directorate justified the travel ban with the reasoning that the “right-wing extremists” would “promote the transnational networking of the right-wing extremist scene, actively promote the inhumane ideology, and give it greater reach.” It further argued there was “significant risk of damage to the reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
During the conference, one of the activists, “Annie,” was interviewed by AfD MP Lena Kotré, who also attended the conference but had no issues with the police.
“They must have been watching you for a while beforehand, so they must have known that you were traveling here. But how do you actually feel when you, as a German, are not allowed to leave your own country, but the whole world is allowed to enter Germany?” asked Kotré.
“I find this comparison a bit dangerous, this GDR (communist East Germany) comparison. But I think it could hardly be more appropriate in this case. It is an absolutely absurd situation and can hardly be surpassed in terms of ridiculousness. I think that was also a moment for many people when it clicked a bit how totalitarian this state can be. And that they are not shy when it comes to setting an example. That will probably be the case for us too. A pretty ridiculous situation overall,” responded Annie.