German right-wing activist Maximilian Märkl was apprehended by the federal police at Munich Airport and prevented from boarding a flight to Portugal, where he had been scheduled to attend and help organize the upcoming Remigration Summit.
According to statements published by Märkl and organizers of the event, authorities removed him from the boarding queue, took him into custody at an airport police station, and issued a temporary travel ban preventing him from entering Portugal until after the conference.
Excerpts from the German order banning Märkl from travelling began circulating online afterwards, further fuelling outrage over the decision due to the reasoning cited by authorities. The document argued that the name and public descriptions of the Remigration Summit indicated that the conference centred on the ‘right-wing extremist concept of remigration’. The order further claimed that Märkl’s participation would contribute to strengthening transnational networking within the Identitarian Movement and spreading its interpretation of remigration across Europe.
In a statement posted after the incident, Märkl described the measure as a violation of his fundamental rights.
‘I was just arrested at Munich Airport and prevented from leaving the country,’ he wrote on X. He claimed German authorities were attempting to suppress political opposition ahead of the conference, adding: ‘They’re trying to jail Dries Van Langenhove, and now they’ve stopped me from leaving my own country.’ Märkl further argued that European governments were resorting to ‘raw repression’ because they had already ‘lost every single debate and the culture war’.
Märkl is one of the leading figures and spokesmen of Identitäre Bewegung Deutschland (IBD), the German branch of the pan-European Identitarian Movement. German domestic intelligence services have classified the organization as right-wing extremist, while supporters argue that it is primarily focused on preserving European cultural identity and opposing mass immigration.
‘I was just arrested at Munich Airport and prevented from leaving the country’
The Remigration Summit has emerged as one of the most prominent gatherings of identitarian and nationalist activists in Europe. The conference advocates the concept of remigration, broadly referring to the large-scale return of illegal migrants and rejected asylum seekers to their countries of origin. While the concept would likely have been considered fringe a decade ago, the Trump administration has promoted remigration as part of its official strategy to combat illegal migration since 2025.
The conference is expected to attract a number of prominent nationalist, identitarian, and right-wing activist figures from across Europe and North America. Among those announced or widely associated with the event are Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, Austrian identitarian leader Martin Sellner, American political commentator Ashley St Clair, and several activists linked to the broader remigration movement. The summit is scheduled for 30 May, Saturday.
The travel ban imposed on Märkl quickly triggered outrage among nationalist and right-wing figures across Europe. Guntram Proß, a German political commentator, argued that an EU citizen was being denied the right to travel freely within the European Union while illegal migrants were allowed unrestricted entry. ‘This state is completely finished and the rule of law has long been dead,’ he wrote on X.
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Bundestag member Tobias Teich similarly condemned the decision, describing it as a ‘DDR-retro measure’, comparing it to the former Soviet East Germany.
The organizers of the Remigration Summit also denounced the decision, stating that the German government was preventing citizens from exercising free speech and attempting to intimidate political opponents.
Märkl’s arrest and travel ban come only days after Belgian nationalist activist Dries Van Langenhove was convicted in a high-profile hate speech case, a verdict that sparked backlash from nationalist and conservative figures across Europe and the United States. Märkl himself explicitly linked the two cases, portraying them as part of a broader campaign against identitarian and nationalist movements across the continent.
The case also bears similarities to measures taken earlier in May by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government in connection with Tommy Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march, when the Home Office revoked the Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) of at least 11 right-wing activists and politicians scheduled to attend the event.
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