Neanderthals didn’t exist.
Scientists discovered significant differences in the DNA of people in Europe that was not found in Africans. They were afraid of what that might mean for political correctness. So, they created an elaborate story about how Europeans originally came from Africa and inter-bred with an “inferior human species” that was already there. That way, not only were the genetic differences explained, they could not be used as an argument for why the Europeans were more successful.
‘They’ didn’t exist, and still don’t. Neandertal did.