Demo against the AfD in Mainz with more than 5,000 participants

EThey had expected 300, but well over 5,000 demonstrators came. They are a group of seven students who spontaneously decided to register for a rally in a bar in Mainz last week, when Correctiv's research into the meeting of right-wing extremists near Potsdam became public. “We are so grateful that you all came,” said Janina, one of the students, on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the forecourt of the main train station.

In front of the young woman there are listeners as far as the eye can see. The forecourt, the surrounding streets, everything is full of people. They wave rainbow flags and hold up signs with lettering. It says “Against the agitation, for democracy”, “We are the firewall” and “against the right”.

Despite the bitter cold, people listen patiently

Janina's friend Jasmin, a psychology student, later said that it was the first demonstration they had organized. She wanted to “do something about the shift to the right”. Jasmin and the others are marked with a pink ribbon that shows that they are part of the organization team.

Despite the bitter cold – the thermometer shows minus three degrees later in the evening – people listen to her patiently. The mood is happy, but also combative. Fear, anger, resistance, these are the motifs that can be heard here again and again. Against the AfD, against words like “remigration”, against “fascism”. The words “the whole of Mainz hates the AfD” are said to often echo across the entire station square.

“We had the idea in the pub almost a week ago, ten hours later I registered the demo,” says Janina. “We’ve never done anything like this before, so please be understanding if something doesn’t work.” The recently announced meeting of individual AfD members with actors from the new right was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

They would have quickly found an image, written down a text and distributed it on social media. Many have shared it, thousands are now standing before it.

Long pauses between speakers, a short wait for Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD), none of this can dampen the mood of the demonstrators. “It's healing to see that you're not alone,” says Jasmin Abbas, a speaker who later also stands in the crowd.

Dreyer: “Nobody can duck away anymore”

Christoph Kraus, consultant for justice and peace in the diocese of Mainz, speaks pointedly: “They want to deport everyone. If they do that, all that will be left of the Christmas story is an ox and a donkey.” The crowd laughs.

The Prime Minister speaks briefly but with a clear message to an audience that knows neither age nor party boundaries. Students next to “Grandmas against the Right”, SPD banners next to those of the FDP. Accordingly, Dreyer's message is independent of party colors. “We need every democrat, democracy is at risk. Nobody can duck away anymore. We need everyone. Mainz shows that it can be done.”

Since Potsdam, no one can say that they “didn’t know.” Right-wing extremists always said, “whatever they do and do it.” For them, remigration is a euphemism, “they want deportations,” says Dreyer. This is followed by chants. “All together, against fascism.”

There is also a right-wing extremist danger in Rhineland-Palatinate, says Dreyer. Sebastian Münzenmeier, AfD member of the Bundestag and deputy chairman of the AfD Rhineland-Palatinate, is “in right-wing circles”. The Rheinhessen center, which is close to the AfD, is a “right-wing extremist cadre factory” that has now “finally been closed”. The message: The danger is there and lurks among us. “We shouldn’t feel safe,” says the Prime Minister.

“The whole of Mainz hates the AfD!”

The organizers played an audio message from a young man whose mother was murdered in the Hanau attack. “The AfD is partly to blame for her death. It pains me that she still sits in so many parliaments.”

The demonstration starts around half past six in the direction of Gutenbergplatz. Theresa, another young woman from the organizing team, runs alongside the demonstrators. She screams into her megaphone: “The whole of Mainz hates the AfD,” the echo comes straight away, many times louder. “It's outstanding, we only expected a few hundred. “Today shows how well Mainz can stick together.”

But it wasn't just people from Mainz who came. “Alerta, alerta, the grandmas are tougher,” shouts Irene Fromberger from the “Grandmas Against the Right” from Wiesbaden. Today she wants to demonstrate “against the impending shift to the right” and call words like “remigration” for what they are. “It’s mass deportations that they want,” she says. When the front part of the train reached Schillerplatz, a large part of the train had not even started walking, as the police reported.

The final rally is scheduled to begin a little later at Gutenbergplatz. The first people arrive at quarter past seven. Half an hour later there is still no end of the train in sight. Behind the illuminated Mainz Cathedral, the crowd listens to a speaker who reports on threats from right-wing actors.

“I have already organized a demo in Berlin. I helped with this demo. Since Berlin, I've been getting calls and emails every day from people who say they want to kill me,” says the young man and then: “Give me a 'AfD is shit!'” The answer echoes through the evening in Mainz seconds later. “I'm afraid of them, but you give me courage.” Applause on Gutenbergplatz that lasts for a long time.

A little later the demonstration broke up, which according to police reports was peaceful until the end. “A great evening,” says a woman to her companion. “It continues on Saturday in Frankfurt,” he says.