1 of 2 demonstrators take to the streets in Frankfurt to protest against the rightwing extremist AfD Photo: Portal/Kai Pfaffenbach Demonstrators take to the streets in Frankfurt to protest against the rightwing extremist AfD Photo: Portal/Kai Pfaffenbach
More than 250,000 people gathered on the streets of Germany this Saturday (20) in protests against the farright party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The occasion was a recent party meeting with neoNazis and business people, at which they discussed, among other things Project of mass expulsion of immigrants and “unassimilated citizens”.“.
Around 35,000 people gathered in Frankfurt this Saturday under the motto “Defend democracy Frankfurt against the AfD”. A similar number of people demonstrated in the city of Hanover, further north, with signs saying “Nazis out.”
Acts were also recorded in Braunschweig, Erfurt and Kassel as well as in smaller cities, as has been happening every day for the past week.
In total, acts are expected in more than 100 German cities this weekend. This Sunday there were protests in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Dresden, Leipzig and Bonn.
In addition to some politicians, the church and the football association also called for a rejection demonstration against the AfD, which entered the Bundestag in 2017.
In a statement on Friday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on everyone to take a stand “for cohesion, tolerance” and “our democratic Germany”.
Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative opposition CDU party, wrote on the social media site X that it was “very encouraging that thousands of people are demonstrating peacefully against rightwing extremism.”
However, two members of his party, which belongs to the Values Union, the most conservative wing of the CDU, also took part in the meeting in Potsdam. The chairman of this group, HansGeorg Maaßen, announced his departure from the party this Saturday and announced that he would found his own party.
2 of 2 demonstrators take to the streets in Frankfurt to protest against the rightwing extremist AfD Photo: Portal/Kai Pfaffenbach Demonstrators take to the streets in Frankfurt to protest against the rightwing extremist AfD Photo: Portal/Kai Pfaffenbach
The protests erupted after investigative journalism organization Correctiv published the following on January 10: Information about a secret meeting in Potsdamnear Berlin.
Among the participants were AfD members, neoNazis and business people. A prominent figure from the radical identity movement, the Austrian Martin Sellner, also took part in the event.
The party confirmed the presence of its members at the meeting, but assured that it does not support the “remigration” project presented by Sellner.
The Austrian supports the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which states that there is a conspiracy by nonwhite immigrants to replace the “native” white population of Europe.
The case has shocked many in Germany at a time when the AfD is running high in polls ahead of three major regional elections in the east of the country, where support for the party is strongest.