02/03/2024 – 14:15
The German capital and other cities in the country register acts against right-wing extremism and the AfD party, in the fourth consecutive weekend of demonstrations. A protest against the extreme right and the ultra-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) brought together around 150 thousand people in Berlin this Saturday (03/02) in front of the Bundestag (lower house of the German Parliament), according to police estimates – the organizers said there were 300 thousand participants.
This is the fourth consecutive weekend of demonstrations across Germany against right-wing extremism. Other cities also registered similar protests this Saturday, such as Freiburg, where around 30,000 people protested, Augsburg, with 25,000, and Hanover, with around 10,000 participants.
The wave of demonstrations was triggered after the revelation of a meeting held in Potsdam with the participation of neo-Nazis and members of the AfD, in which a plan for the mass deportation of millions of immigrants and “unassimilated citizens” was presented.
According to a reporter from the AFP news agency, hundreds of people joined hands to form a symbolic ring around the Reichstag, the headquarters of the Bundestag, symbolically protecting it from far-right attacks.
More than 1,300 associations, initiatives and institutions called for the demonstration under the motto “We are the firewall”, also called in political jargon a cordon sanitaire, which expresses the tactic of preventing the AfD from allying with other parties in the formation of governments.
Support from politicians
Several politicians took part in the demonstration in Berlin, including Saskia Esken, co-chair of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD), and Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, from the same party.
Family Minister Lisa Paus, from the Green Party, which forms the German government coalition alongside the SPD and the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), was also at the event in Berlin, and stated that people's engagement “was very important in current times.”
Scholz voiced his support for the protests across Germany in a message on X, calling them “a strong symbol for democracy and our Constitution.”
Tino Chrupalla, co-president of the AfD parliamentary group, stated in an interview with radio Deutschlandfunk that it was “legitimate to take to the streets with the government”, but he considered that the protests were being instrumentalized by the coalition that currently rules Germany. “The government is currently using calls for demonstrations to distract attention from the real problems,” he said.
Although the ultra-right party saw its popularity ratings drop slightly following the revelation of the Potsdam meeting, it is currently the second most popular party in Germany, with support from around 20% of Germans, and is behind only the Christian Democratic Union. (CDU), center-right.
This year there will be three important state elections in eastern Germany, where the AfD's support is strongest and the party has a chance of electing its first governor.
bl (AFP, KNA)
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