In March 2018, he was denied entry to, and deported from, the United Kingdom.[7][8][9] A year later, he was denied entry to the United States.[10]
Early life
Sellner was raised outside of
Vienna. He became involved in nationalist politics as a teenager, being part of Austria's
neo-Nazi scene.[11] An early mentor of his was
Gottfried Küssel, a well-known neo-Nazi figure.[11]
Neo-Nazi activity
In 2006, at the age of 17, Sellner admitted to placing stickers with another person on a synagogue in
Baden bei Wien, Lower Austria.[12] Stickers with a swastika and the inscription "Legalise it" as well as stickers with a coat of arms and the letters AJ (for "Aryan Youth") were used. The accomplice later stated in an interrogation that they had "wanted to do something" when they heard about the conviction of the British Holocaust denier
David Irving. Sellner did 100 hours of community service in a diversion at the Jewish cemetery in Baden, leading to the public prosecutor's office renouncing a criminal trial.[13][14]
In 2008, he helped a leading Austrian neo-Nazi group hinder liberal demonstrations and made pilgrimages to memorial services for
Wehrmacht soldiers.[4] In 2016, he said that he had broken with
neo-Nazism, and that the rising popularity of Nazism is a failure of society.[4]
In April 2016, he disrupted a theatre performance of
Elfriede Jelinek's piece, Die Schutzbefohlenen (theatre performance with migrants seeking asylum),[15] along with around 30 members of his organisation, spilling fake blood.[16] The blood was intended to symbolize the "blood of
Bataclan and
Brussels".[17]
In February 2017, Sellner was involved in a fight in a
Vienna U-Bahn station where he used
pepper spray on people he described as far-left activists. Since this incident, he has been banned from carrying weapons.[21]
In March 2018, Sellner and Brittany Pettibone, at that time his girlfriend, were denied entry to the United Kingdom at
Luton Airport on the grounds that their presence in the United Kingdom was not conducive to the public good.[22] Sellner intended to deliver an address at
Speakers' Corner in
Hyde Park, London.[23] They were denied entry, detained for two days and deported.[22][24]
On 25 March 2019, Sellner's apartment was searched by the Austrian police. His computer, mobile phone, all data storage devices and cash cards were confiscated on suspicion that he was a member of a terrorist organization; early in 2018 he had received a donation of $1,500 from the
Australian-born terrorist Brenton Tarrant of the
Christchurch mosque shootings in
Christchurch,
New Zealand.[25][26][27] Sellner denied any involvement in the attacks.[28]
According to Sellner, U.S. authorities canceled his permit to travel without a visa to the United States thus preventing him from visiting Pettibone, now his wife.[29] In 2019, the Republican Committee of Pettibone's home county of
Kootenai County, Idaho, called on the American federal government to allow Sellner to travel to the United States.[30] The move caused considerable controversy within the Republican Party and the State of Idaho.[31] Sellner has said he wants to be allowed into the country so he and his fiancée could marry and live together in
Post Falls, Idaho, rather than his native Austria;[32] following this, their marriage was instead held in Austria later that year.[33]
In June 2019, Austrian police expanded their searches of Sellner's property in connection with the
Christchurch shootings by Brenton Tarrant. According to media reports, Sellner commented that his electronic devices had been seized because police had a "strong suspicion of [Sellner] forming a terrorist organisation with Brenton Tarrant". A search warrant, which Sellner produced in a video on his YouTube channel, justified the search on the basis of
Brenton Tarrant's "The Manifesto of The Great Replacement" and the suspicion of Sellner having collaborated with the Christ Church shooter.[34] On 13 December 2019, a judge ruled that the searches were unlawful. Investigators had wrongly suspected Sellner of forming a terrorist organisation. According to the public prosecutor's office in
Graz, inspection of Sellner's bank account was illegal for a lack of
reasonable suspicion.[35]
In June 2019, Sellner was permanently excluded from entering the UK on security grounds in a letter sent to him by the
Home Office. A year earlier, Sellner had attempted to enter the UK via
Stansted airport, but had been stopped by the authorities. The Home Secretary,
Sajid Javid, feared that Sellner might try to enter the UK again to train the local branch of Generation Identity and carry out public stunts that would promote "anti-Islamic and anti-immigration narratives".[36]
On 29 January 2024, Sellner entered Germany from Austria in a leased car, despite the fact that German authorities had issued an entry ban against the Austrian national. The police searched and interrogated Sellner for an hour after releasing him.[37] On 19 March 2024, Sellner was banned from entering Germany for 3 years. According to German public media, Sellner had stated on his Twitter account that he would be "pushed back and punished" if he tried to enter Germany during the ban. The ban came after it was reported that Sellner had given a speech on "
remigration" to politicians from the
AfD and the
CDU in Potsdam on 25 November 2023.[38][39]
On 16 March 2024, Sellner was arrested by police officers while he was giving a speech at an event organized by the Swiss Identitarian organization "Junge Tat" in
Tegerfelden. After an interrogation, Sellner was released on the condition that he leave the country immediately, which he did.[40] According to media reports, a senior police officer in Zurich had warned Sellner in a telephone call the day before that the intended event "must not take place".[41]
Views
Wolfgang Ullrich has suggested that there are connections between the worldview of Sellner and the theories of the philosopher
Martin Heidegger and the political theorist
Carl Schmitt.[42]
ITV's
documentary film investigation Undercover – The New British Far-Right claimed the existence of undercover footage of Sellner discussing contacts between
Generation Identity and
white supremacist groups in the
United States, but stated that these contacts must be hidden due to
public relations. The documentary claimed that Sellner stated that Jews were a problem in the 1920s and made references to the "
Jewish question". Sellner also said that the domination of the American alt-right by the "Jewish question" is a "complete strategical and theoretical failure". It claimed he said he was an
antisemite in his youth, and that his friends made offensive comments about the
Holocaust.[43] He supports
The Great Replacement conspiracy theory. Sellner responded by calling the documentary a "hit piece", and that the statements were taken out of context. In a statement released by Generation Identity and Sellner, they stated that the group wants to preserve European "ethno-cultural identity" and stated that the group has no hidden agendas.[43][44]
Sellner is regarded as a member of the alt-right movement.[45][46][47]