Over 100,000 individuals gathered in various cities across Germany on Saturday to protest against the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. The party has been under fire after it was revealed that its members had discussed mass deportation plans at a meeting of extremists.
In Frankfurt, approximately 35,000 people participated in a demonstration under the slogan “Defend democracy – Frankfurt against the AfD”, marching in the financial center of Germany. A similar number of protesters, some carrying posters with messages like “Nazis out”, gathered in the northern city of Hanover.
Turmoil in Germany over neo-Nazi mass deportation meeting – explainedRead more
Protests also took place in cities such as Braunschweig, Erfurt, and Kassel, as well as many smaller towns, with demonstrations being organized in about 100 locations across Germany from Friday through the weekend, including in Berlin on Sunday.
Politicians, churches, and Bundesliga coaches have all called on people to stand up against the AfD.
The protests were sparked by revelations that AfD party members had attended meetings with neo-Nazis and other extremists to discuss the mass deportation of migrants, asylum seekers, and German citizens of foreign origin deemed to have failed to integrate.
Among the participants at the talks near the east German city of Potsdam was Martin Sellner, a leader of Austria’s Identitarian Movement, which subscribes to the “great replacement” conspiracy theory that claims there is a plot by non-white migrants to replace Europe’s “native” white population.
News of the gathering sent shock waves across Germany at a time when the AfD is soaring in opinion polls, just months ahead of three major regional elections in eastern Germany where their support is strongest.
The anti-immigration party confirmed the presence of its members at the meeting, but has denied taking on the “remigration” project championed by Sellner.
Leading politicians including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined a demonstration last weekend, said any plan to expel immigrants or citizens alike amounted to “an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us”.
He urged “all to take a stand – for cohesion, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany”.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the opposition conservative CDU party, wrote online that it was “very encouraging that thousands of people are demonstrating peacefully against rightwing extremism”.
Besides members of the AfD, two members of the hard-right faction Werteunion of the CDU were also at the meeting near Potsdam cited by Correctiv.
Amid the outrage over the Potsdam meeting, the Werteunion’s leader Hans-Georg Maassen said on Saturday it had decided to split…
2024-01-20 20:52:27
Article from www.theguardian.com