In Germany, civil society has risen to oppose the AfD party, which is linked to extremists. However, the protest movement may turn against itself, warns a democracy researcher.
Berlin
In total hundreds of thousands of people across Germany demonstrated over the weekend against the extreme right and the Alternative for Germany party (AfD).
In Munich, the demonstration had to be stopped on Sunday when there were more participants than expected.
According to the police's estimate, 100,000 people participated in the demonstration organized in the capital Berlin from early Sunday evening.
Participants arriving at the Berlin demonstration on Sunday afternoon. The Brandenburg Gate can be seen in the background.
Similar demonstrations have been held in about a hundred locations since the investigative journalism publication Correctiv revealed earlier this month, members of the AfD party attended a secret far-right meeting in Potsdam.
In a meeting held in November, a group of far-right influencers from Germany and Austria drew up a plan to deport immigrants and German citizens from different backgrounds.
in Berlin On Sunday, thousands of townspeople poured into the demonstration held in front of the parliament building, the Reichstag, in a steady stream. There were many families with children.
Christian Kampkötter was pulling a wheeled cart with an anti-AfD sign on it. Alongside Anne Koenig carried a 3.5 year old Casimirwho participated in the first demonstration of his life.
“We think it's important to stand up against AfD and discrimination,” says Anne König.
He comes from the former East German state of Saxony, where the party's support is particularly high. According to polls, the AfD has about 35 percent support in Saxony, while in the rest of Germany it is twenty percent.
Anne König, 3-year-old Kasimir and Christian Kampkötter on their way to a demonstration against the extreme right.
According to König, the rise of the AfD is a danger to society as a whole.
“The opinions of right-wing radicals are in danger of becoming mainstream. People speak in a discriminatory manner without inhibitions,” he says.
The main opposition to the demonstration, the AfD, is a democratically elected party in the German parliament. The German Interior Ministry has defined the party as far-right in some states.
AfD is politically isolated. Other parliamentary parties consider it anti-democratic and do not cooperate with the party. In other European countries, right-wing populists have been included in joint governments and no similar firewall has been built around them.
Kampkötter, who is riding a bicycle, says that Germany has a different relationship with the far right because of its Nazi history.
“We are perhaps more sensitive than others, but for a reason. These parties are a danger to democracy everywhere.”
According to him, the danger is not only open racism but also the extreme right's vision of society. Kampkötter says that after coming to power, extreme right-wing parties undermine the basic values ​​of liberal democracy, such as the status of minorities.
According to police estimates, a demonstration in Berlin gathered 100,000 participants in front of the parliament building on Sunday.
“Fascism is not an opinion” reads the sign of a protester waiting at the subway station entrance.
Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz has given its support to the weekend demonstrations against the AfD and the far right. His own social democratic party is behind the AfD in opinion polls.
“I am grateful that tens of thousands are taking to the streets across Germany these days to oppose racism, hatred and defend liberal democracy,” Scholz commented on the messaging service X.
Democracy researcher, sociologist Wolfgang Merkel warned the Tagesspiegel newspaper in the interviewthat the demonstrations against the extreme right might turn against themselves.
AfD remains the focus of society's attention. The harsh language of the demonstrations can put the AfD in the position of a victim.
According to Merkel, the problem is not that the mainstream population remains silent in the face of the extreme right. Instead, politics should do more for the dissatisfied part of the population.
In Germany, there is trust in the current government in bottom readings. Germans' trust in democracy in general has also decreased, according to a Körber Foundation study published last fall.
AfD presents itself as an alternative to Germany's traditional ruling parties, which brings it protest votes.
of Berlin The grandmothers' movement, which has been opposing the extreme right for years, participated in the demonstration on Sunday: My own i.e. grandmas against the right.
Uta Lehndert says the revelation of the sec
ret far-right meeting in Potsdam was a shock to Germans because it brought to mind the Nazi-era Wannsee Conference. At the conference, the officials outlined the mass extermination of the Jews.
The anniversary of the Wannsee Conference was January 20.
Gunda (left) and Uta Lehndert are involved in the “grandmothers” movement, which has been opposing the rise of the far-right in Germany for years.
The awakening of civil society in recent days against the extreme right has been seen in the grandmothers' movement. The weekly Friday meeting recently had more new participants than usual.
“We have often been told that the concern about the AfD is an exaggeration. Now there was a clear plan, and the meeting included people sitting in the Bundestag”, who only gives his first name Gunda says and points towards the parliament building.
The Potsdam meeting was attended by AfD politicians and the party leader By Alice Weidel adviser. The adviser was fired after the meeting was revealed.
The far-right scandal has increased in Germany requirements ban the entire party as anti-democratic. According to experts, the ban is a legally difficult process.
Uta Lehndert opposes the AfD but does not support its ban. Supporters of the idea would not disappear anywhere.
“You can't deny people. A new corresponding party would replace it.”
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