Thousands of people took to the streets in Berlin and other German cities this Saturday to express their rejection of the far-right and alleged plans to mass deport migrants. Under the motto “We are the firewall,” demonstrators in the German capital, which has become the epicenter of all marches, surrounded parliament as a symbolic firewall against extremists. “It is our responsibility as civil society to defend solidarity and coexistence,” said members of the Hand in Hand alliance, which is behind Saturday’s call, which was signed by more than 1,800 organizations and other civil society initiatives. Although the initial plan was to form a human chain around the Reichstag, the large influx of people – at least 150,000 participants, according to police figures – turned the circle into a large crowd around the iconic building that houses the parliament.
At the same time, more than 100 demonstrations for democracy and against right-wing extremism were organized in other cities, from Schleswig-Holstein in the north to Bavaria in the south, including large demonstrations like in Dresden.
The marches follow marches in recent weeks after investigative portal Correctiv uncovered a secret meeting organized in a Potsdam hotel in late November between leading members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and known neo-Nazis. Their goal was to develop a “master plan” to deport millions of people of migrant descent, including citizens with German passports but who were allegedly “not integrated”. Although the AfD, which is booming and is already second in voting intentions at the federal level, has denied that these migration plans are party politics, the protests continue.
The news of this secret meeting was the trigger that moved a part of society. “They are really very different people,” explains political scientist Simon Franzmann, a researcher at the German University of Göttingen. “Now there is also the so-called center as well as small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who are more conservative.”
The wave of protests brings together not only people from the traditional left, but also people from the center-right movement who “may be skeptical about immigration, but are not enemies of the system and want to make it clear what it is.” “The Ultra-right don’t do what they want.”
Erwin Häringer is one of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. For the 78-year-old Bavarian doctor and teacher, father of two daughters, it is about making it clear to the extremists that “Germany has a heterogeneous and diverse population.” “We want to ensure that human rights violations never occur again in Germany. It is important that we say “Never again” and “Never again is now”. “We have to be vigilant, defend democracy and defend the heterogeneity of the population,” he says.
“People have forgotten that Hitler came to power because democracy reacted too late or not at all. “They just let him do it,” he recalls a historical fact that is very much in the spotlight these days, because on January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.
Erwin Häringer took part in the protest in Munich on January 21st. “What I saw at this demonstration, and I have been to many, was a cross-section of all classes.” People who like him are concerned about the possibility of “anti-democratic forces becoming stronger.”
Mareike Godolt, a teacher in Berlin who took part in the last demonstration in Berlin before this Saturday, sees it the same way. “It’s scary to see how strong a party like the AfD is becoming,” she explains her motives. “It is important to show that we are here too and do not share their ideas, that many people think differently.”
For the 43-year-old West Berlin native, the plans to deport migrants are “terrifying” because they point to something she had hoped was long behind her. She had already seen this in the 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a “very, very complicated” time in which there were many Nazis in some areas such as “in the east of the city or in Brandenburg”. she remembers.
“I live in Berlin, where we have mixed origins, where everyone is Berliner and we all belong here. For me, it is an important part of my identity that we can live together like this in Berlin,” explains the physicist-turned-teacher.
Her circle of friends is multicultural, as is the school where she works. “The children come to me full of fear and ask me whether they have to leave the country and what will happen now,” she emphasizes. “It's about showing them that we are more and that we want them to stay because they are just as much a part of the country as everyone else and that they are not afraid.”
Demonstrators at the protest march against the right-wing extremist AfD in Berlin on Saturday.ANNEGRET HILSE (Portal)
There are also protests in Saxony, a stronghold of the AfD, where it is expected to win 35 percent of the vote in the September election, according to recent polls. The proximity of the elections prompted citizens like Matthias Wolf to take part in the large demonstration in Leipzig last weekend.
“There are many reasons to go there. One of them is that they exist [regional] There are elections in September and people need to realize that there is a lot at stake. “It is possible that the AfD will become the party with the most votes and enter the government, we have to avoid that,” says the mathematics teacher at a Leipzig high school.
For the 42-year-old German, who loves traveling the world and playing table tennis, it is important to show that there is a large majority for democracy and freedom. Unlike many others, he would have come to the demonstration earlier, but he is aware that the trigger for many was the secret meeting in Potsdam uncovered by Correctiv.
“It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and showed openly how racist and nationalist this party is and that it’s time to do something about it,” he explains. “It wasn’t a surprise to me.”
In view of the upcoming European elections on June 9th and the elections in the federal states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in September, many people are wondering to what extent this citizens' movement will have an impact at the ballot box.
Even if it is “a kind of glimmer of hope that a democratic debate is being sought,” political scientist Franzmann does not believe that such protests will last for long, although they open up an interesting discussion among the population. “There are a lot of people who are kind of in the middle, who don’t have a defined ideology and are now thinking about whether it’s necessary to make a statement.”
The expert believes that the protests could have an impact, especially among these people who do not vote consistently. These are people who were once close to the AfD and are now “distancing themselves again and will probably not support them again,” he explains.
The AfD is aware of this and has “moderated its language, it has learned that certain terms are not allowed to be used in public and it will be more careful in its communication strategy, although I don't think it will change its content,” emphasized Franzmann.
However, the AfD will still have a large following. “It must be clear that in Germany we will have to coexist with right-wing populist parties with right-wing extremist elements for a long time,” he adds. Statements that coincide with the latest ARD survey, where the AfD remains the second largest force nationwide with 19%, just one percentage point less than in the January survey.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive more English-language news from EL PAÍS USA Edition