Thousands of people gathered at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on Saturday afternoon for a demonstration in support of peace talks with Russia. Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht and women’s rights activist Alice Schwarzer called for the demonstration.
The police spoke of about 13,000 participants, the organizers of about 50,000. In his speech, Wagenknecht called for an end to arms deliveries to Ukraine.
It is about “ending the terrible suffering and death in Ukraine”, Wagenknecht said. At the same time, it is about making an offer to negotiate with Russia, “instead of ammunition an endless war of attrition with ever new weapons”. It is important to avoid the risk of the war spreading across Europe and possibly the world. That risk is “too big”.
criticism of the manifesto
Two weeks ago, Wagenknecht and Schwarzer published a “Manifesto for Peace” in which they urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to “stop the escalation in arms supplies” and called for a ceasefire and peace talks. More than 640,000 people have declared their approval of the “Manifesto” on the Internet. The two initiators presented their demonstration on Saturday under the slogan “Rebellion for Peace”. Critics accused Wagenknecht and Schwarzer of being “naive”.
Scholz (SPD), Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FPD) have also made it clear that they do not share the condemnation. One must understand “that the Russian president currently accepts only one form of negotiation, namely that someone capitulates unconditionally and he implements all of his goals,” Scholz said.
“It is already very crowded in Praça 18 de Março and people continue to crowd the rally,” the police tweeted in the afternoon. Meanwhile, S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains no longer stopped at the Brandenburg Gate. Police wanted to be on duty with 1,400 troops on Saturday because of war-related demonstrations in Mitte.
She was supported by colleagues from Saxony-Anhalt. A police spokesperson said there were minor punches backstage at the event at the Brandenburg Gate. In addition, according to the police, a group of left-wing counter-demonstrators had a strong argument with the editor of “Revista Compacta”, Jürgen Elsässer. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the magazine as a proven right-wing extremist effort.
Right or left demo?
Police announced later in the afternoon that they were unaware of any right-wing extremist participants at the rally. A spokesperson could only confirm that people of the right spectrum mingled among the participants. According to party information, several members of the AfD were also there, including the Saxon head of the AfD, Jörg Urban.
On the website of the “Rebellion for Peace” rally, participants were asked to refrain from flying party and national flags. “Extreme right flags, emblems and symbols have no place at our rally,” he said.