About 250,000 people turned out across Germany on Saturday in protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which sparked an outcry after it emerged that the party’s members discussed mass deportation plans at a meeting of extremists.
About 35,000 people joined a call under the banner “Defend democracy — Frankfurt against the AfD,” marching in Frankfurt. the financial heart of Germany, police said.
A similar number, some carrying posters like “Nazis out,” turned up in the northern city Hanover.
Photo:Ap
Another 30,000 turned out in the western city of Dortmund.
Demonstrations have been called in about 100 locations across Germany from Friday through the weekend, including in Berlin yesterday. Public broadcaster ARD put the total turnout on Saturday at 250,000.
Not only politicians but also churches and Bundesliga coaches have urged people to stand up against the AfD.
The wave of mobilization against the far-right party was sparked by a Jan. 10 report by investigative outlet Correctiv, which revealed that AfD members had discussed the expulsion of immigrants and “non-assimilated citizens” at a meeting with extremists.
Among the participants at the talks 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.
However, leading politicians including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz 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.”
German Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser went so far as to say in the newspapers of the Funke press group that the far-right meeting was reminiscent of “the horrible Wannsee conference,” where the Nazis planned the extermination of European Jews in 1942.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the opposition conservatives Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, also wrote on X that it was “very encouraging that thousands of people are demonstrating peacefully against right-wing extremism.”
However, 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 from the CDU.
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