TDespite the drizzle, significantly more than the announced 100,000 people gathered in Berlin for a demonstration against the AfD and the right. More than 150,000 people are currently on site, the police wrote on Platform X on Saturday afternoon. The organizers spoke of around 300,000 participants. According to the police, all planned additional areas in the area have been released.
100,000 people registered. A human chain was planned under the motto “We are the firewall”. Behind the campaign against hate and for tolerance is an alliance called “Hand in Hand” with more than 1,300 organizations.
The high number of participants is a “strong sign of an open, democratic, pluralistic and solidarity-based society,” explained Christoph Bautz, the executive board of the campaign network Campact, which is one of the co-initiators. “The wave of protests against the AfD and its right-wing extremist networks is also sweeping through the country this weekend,” he explained. “Together, the broad spectrum of civil society defends democracy, the rule of law and freedom of expression against hatred and incitement.”
For a good three weeks, tens of thousands have been taking to the streets all over Germany against right-wing extremism. The protests were triggered by a report by the media company “Correctiv” about a meeting of radical right-wingers on November 25th in Potsdam, in which AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union also took part.
The former head of the Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, confirmed to the German Press Agency that he spoke about “remigration” at the meeting. When right-wing extremists use this term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress. According to Correctiv research, Sellner named three target groups in Potsdam: asylum seekers, foreigners with the right to remain – and “non-assimilated citizens”.
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