German Political Party Spreads Fake Germany Travel Ban Against Sweden

A far-right political party in Germany was accused of spreading news about a fake Germany travel ban against Sweden. The German Foreign Ministry dismissed the claims in social media stating that the government -- despite raising terrorism alert levels against Sweden -- did not issue a travel ban against the country.

According to The Local Germany, a German Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden said that it was the "first time" the German Foreign Ministry had to "correct erroneous claims about Sweden" specifically the fake Germany travel ban. The Embassy Spokesperson said the Embassy is responsible for reporting Swedish terrorist threat assessments to the German Foreign Ministry. The spokesperson said the information must have led to false interpretation by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) far-right political party.

According to DW.com, the German Foreign Ministry suggested that the announcement be read as: "The Federal Foreign Office pointed out a year ago that the Swedish government had lowered its level of terrorism," and apologized "if that sounds less interesting." AfD posted in its Twitter and Facebook page that there was "a serious travel warning [applied and effective] since 1 March," and that it was "strange we didn't hear about it in the media."

The controversial far-right group early in 2015 contested the German government for opening its doors for refugees and criticized the European Union's rules on human rights. Its ideas for socialism had a controversial statement from its leader Bjorn Hocke regarding Germany's "reverence to Holocaust victims" had seen support immensely shed off from the political party.

According to critics of the group, AfD is the new home of German "neo Nazis" as they proliferate neo-Nazi ideas and appeal greatly to right wing extremists. DW writes that the AfD heavily benefited from the rise of the populist international trend which pushed the US and Britain to radical decisions from voting Donald Trump and Brexit, respectively.