01/21/2024 – 17:13
Pro-democracy events in Berlin and Munich bring together around 100,000 protesters each. In total over the weekend, 1.4 million people took to the streets in more than a hundred German cities, organizers estimate. Germany had another day of intense protests this Sunday (21/01), when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in several cities across the country in defense of democracy and in repudiation of right-wing extremism and its anti-immigration agenda.
The new wave of demonstrations, which have been occurring since the previous week, came in response to a secret meeting held by members of the ultra-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with neo-Nazis to discuss a plan to deport millions of foreigners.
Between Friday and this Sunday alone, acts were registered in more than 100 German cities. Organizers estimated the presence of more than 1.4 million people in total, in events that sent a “signal against the AfD and the right-wing trend in German society”.
This Sunday, demonstrations took place in large cities such as Berlin, Munich and Cologne, and in smaller ones, including Dresden, Cottbus and Chemnitz, in eastern Germany, where the ultra-right tends to have more support.
100 thousand in Berlin, 100 thousand in Munich
In Munich, the number of protesters was so large that organizers were forced to cancel a scheduled march and ask those present to disperse for safety reasons.
According to local police, around 100,000 attended the protest in the Bavarian capital, a number four times greater than the number registered for the event. The organizers, in turn, estimated the presence of 200 thousand people.
In Berlin, another 100,000 took to the streets against the extreme right, according to police estimates published by regional broadcaster RBB. Protesters gathered in front of the headquarters of the Bundestag (German Parliament), carrying signs with phrases such as “Against the right” and “No place for Nazis”.
“It’s good that something is finally happening, that the silent majority is not so silent anymore,” one protester, Lydia Steffenhagen, told the AFP news agency in Berlin.
In Cologne, organizers estimated that 70,000 people joined the protest. In Bremen, the event brought together 45,000 protesters, according to police figures.
In Dresden, the capital of the state of Saxony, where the AfD leads polls for regional elections, authorities had to change the direction of a march due to the large turnout. According to the police, the event was prolonged to make room for a “huge number of participants”.
Protests over the weekend
On Saturday, protests in cities such as Frankfurt, Hannover and Nuremberg had already brought together around 250,000 protesters, who carried banners with phrases such as “We are diverse” and “Voting for the AfD is so 1933”, referring to the year in which Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler took power in Germany.
On Friday, a large demonstration took place in Hamburg, which had to be stopped early after gathering many more people than expected. The police estimated the presence of 50,000, while organizers speak of 80,000, stressing that the number would be higher if the demonstration had not been ended before many managed to arrive.
Why are so many protesting now?
The secret meeting held by AfD members sparked nationwide outrage when it came to light more than ten days ago. It took place in Potsdam in November and also included politicians from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of former Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, today the largest opposition party.
The case was first revealed by the investigative journalism website Correctiv, and then confirmed by the AfD on January 10. The party, however, denies any plans to adopt such a proposal and claims that it was not a partisan event.
The report reported that during the meeting, an Austrian extremist leader, Martin Sellner, presented a plan to expel millions of asylum seekers and immigrants from Germany, including those with German citizenship who have not integrated into the country.
At the meeting, the so-called “remigration” was discussed, a term often used in far-right circles as a euphemism for the expulsion of immigrants and minorities, including naturalized Germans.
The case shocked many in Germany, at a time when the AfD is riding high in election polls ahead of three major regional elections in the east of the country.
The reaction of German politicians
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz – who the previous weekend attended a protest alongside Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock – said any plan to deport foreigners represented an “attack on democracy and, in turn, on all of us.” .
Scholz also called on Germans “to take a stand – for cohesion, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany”.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser noted that the secret meeting took place in a hotel in Potsdam, close to where the Nazi party, on January 20, 1942 – 82 years ago – coordinated the so-called “Final Solution” and discussed the systematic murder of millions of Jews in Europe.
“This involuntarily brings back memories of the terrible Wannsee Conference,” the minister told the Funke media group on Saturday.
Faeser highlighted that he has no intention of comparing the two events, but said it is important to make it clear that “what is hidden behind harmless-sounding terms like 'remigration' is the idea of expelling and deporting people en masse due to their ethnic origin. or your political opinions.”
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, Governor Hendrik Wüst of the CDU called for a “centre alliance” between all parties and levels of government.
“We need the Democrats to be united,” he said, calling the AfD a “dangerous Nazi party” that is not based on the German Constitution.
Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU, said it was “very encouraging that thousands are demonstrating peacefully against right-wing extremism”. He did not comment on the fact that members of his party were present at the Potsdam meeting.
ek (AFP, DPA, AP)
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