More than 100,000 people protested against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party across Germany on Saturday after it emerged that party members had discussed mass deportation plans at an extremist meeting. Activities arose.
In Frankfurt, around 35,000 people joined the call to “Defend Democracy – Frankfurt Against AfD” and marched through Germany's financial capital. A similar number of people showed up in the northern city of Hannover, some carrying posters such as “Nazis out”.
Protests also took place in cities such as Braunschweig, Erfurt and Kassel, as well as in a number of small towns, mirroring daily mobilizations over the past week. Demonstrations were called for in about 100 locations across Germany from Friday through the weekend, including in Berlin on Sunday.
Politicians, churches and Bundesliga coaches are all appealing to people to stand up to the AfD.
The protests came as it emerged that AfD members attended meetings with neo-Nazis and other extremists to discuss mass deportations of immigrants, asylum seekers and foreign-born German nationals deemed to have failed to integrate. It started after.
Among the participants in the talks near the East German city of Potsdam were the Austrian Identitarian movement, which supports the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which claims there is a conspiracy by non-white immigrants to replace Europe's “indigenous peoples” Martin Zellner, leader of the group, was also included. ” white population.
News of the rally sent shockwaves across Germany, as opinion polls show the AfD's support soaring in the months ahead of three major regional elections in eastern Germany, where its support is strongest.
The anti-immigration party confirmed that its members were present at the meeting, but denied any involvement in the “immigration” project championed by Mr. Sellner.
Leading politicians, including Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, who took part in last weekend's demonstrations, said any plan to expel migrants or citizens amounted to “an attack on our democracy and, by extension, on all of us.”
He called on “everyone to take a stand for unity, tolerance and a democratic Germany.”
“It is very heartening to see thousands of people peacefully demonstrating against right-wing extremism,” Friedrich Merz, leader of the opposition conservative CDU party, wrote online.
In addition to AfD members, two members of the CDU's far-right Welte Union were also present at the meeting near Potsdam cited by the Collective.
Amid anger over the Potsdam talks, Werte Union leader Hans-Georg Maassen announced on Saturday that he had decided to split from the CDU. The group says it has about 4,000 members, many of whom were originally members of the CDU or its sister party, the Bavarian CSU.
Founded in 2013 by academics and economists as an anti-establishment, anti-euro force, the AfD abandoned its original founders and quickly transformed into an anti-immigration party.
It gained particular attention in 2015, when around one million migrants and refugees arrived in Germany, and the party won seats in the Bundestag for the first time in 2017, initially as the main opposition party.
Its popularity has risen again since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, driven by dissatisfaction with high utility bills, food inflation, and the high moral and economic costs of defending Ukraine.
with Agence France-Presse
