Demonstrations against the right again – “History must not repeat itself”
Published: Sunday, Jan 28th 2024, 21:30
Updated At: Sunday, Jan 28th 2024, 21:31
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Several hundred thousand people once again demonstrated against the right and the AfD throughout Germany at the weekend. This means that the nationwide demonstrations are still very popular around two weeks after they began. According to the police, around 100,000 people turned out in Düsseldorf alone on Saturday. According to the police, around 60,000 people gathered in Hamburg on Sunday, while the Fridays for Future movement spoke to around 100,000 people, including climate activist Luisa Neubauer. The participants chanted "Hamburg hates the AfD" or "We are more".
Complete nationwide participant figures were not initially available. In many places, the events were supported by politicians. In Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg's Minister President Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) took part privately on Saturday, while Schleswig-Holstein's Minister President Daniel Günther (CDU) and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) demonstrated in Aachen. In Saxony-Anhalt, the local Minister President Reiner Haseloff (CDU) took to the streets in Wittenberg. In Osnabrück, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) warned against the AfD at a rally.
Comparison with the Weimar Republic
The police spoke of around 25,000 demonstrators in Osnabrück, while the organizers put the number at around 30,000. Pistorius said that the AfD wanted to change the system. "That means nothing other than they want to return to the dark times of racial madness, discrimination, inequality and injustice." He drew a comparison with the Weimar Republic, which did not perish because of its enemies, but because of the weakness of its friends. "Today we know better, history must not be allowed to repeat itself."
In Düsseldorf, the demonstration was held under the motto "Against the AfD - We won't be silent. We will not look away. We are taking action!" The protesters included people of all ages, including many families with children. The banners bore inscriptions such as "I don't like Nazis in general" and "Not again!" One 69-year-old, who said he was taking part in a demonstration for the first time in decades, said: "If we don't show our colors now, we're going in a direction we can't get out of."
At the closing rally, Düsseldorf's Lord Mayor Stephan Keller (CDU) said that the dangers to the first German democracy had been underestimated around 1930. "This must not happen to us again," he warned. "We call out to the extremists: never again will you be in the majority!"
Demonstrations from Lübeck to Singen
In Kiel, the police counted around 11,500 participants in a demonstration against right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. In Trier, there were around 10,000 people. According to the police, there were around 8,000 demonstrators in Lübeck, up to 7,000 in Bremerhaven and Ludwigsburg, around 6,000 in Kaiserslautern and up to 20,000 in Mannheim. According to the police, there were around 20,000 people in Aachen and more than 12,000 in Marburg.
But there were also people on the streets in smaller towns, a selection: In Singen, the police counted around 4000 demonstrators, in Sigmaringen there were around 2000 people. In Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate, officials spoke of around 1500 people at a demonstration against the right, and in Elmshorn of around 6000 people. In eastern Germany, Frankfurt/Oder (around 4,500 people), Zwickau (around 4,000) and Bautzen and Weimar (around 1,500 each) stood out.
Demos for several days now
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, more than 900,000 people had already taken part in demonstrations against right-wing extremists the previous weekend. It referred to police data.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) welcomed the numerous demonstrations against right-wing extremism. "Our country is on its feet right now. Millions of citizens are taking to the streets," he said in his weekly video "Kanzler kompakt". It is the cohesion of democrats that makes democracy strong. "Our democracy is not God-given. It is man-made. It is strong when we support it. And it needs us when it is under attack."
Extremism expert sees unsettled AfD
Sociologist Matthias Quent told the tagesschau.de portal that the AfD is deeply unsettled by the ongoing protests. "The extreme right is in a real panic," said the right-wing extremism expert. The images of the mass demonstrations called into question the nimbus that the AfD is "the party of the people". Attempts are being made to call these demonstrations into question as fakes and stagings. "But these narratives are not really getting through."
The protests were triggered on 10 January by revelations from the Correctiv research center about a meeting of radical right-wingers attended by some AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Werteunion in Potsdam. The former head of the far-right Identitarian movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, spoke about "remigration" at the meeting on November 25, according to his own statements. When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that a large number of people of foreign origin should leave the country - even under duress. According to Correctiv, Sellner named three target groups: Asylum seekers, foreigners with the right to stay and "non-assimilated citizens".
Elections in September in three eastern German states
New state parliaments will be elected in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia in September. According to polls, the AfD could become the strongest party in all three federal states, with a clear lead. In two nationwide polls conducted by Insa and Forsa (for Bild am Sonntag and RTL/ntv), the AfD recently lost popularity, but remained the second strongest party after the CDU/CSU with 21% and 20% respectively. In Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, the AfD is classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist party by the respective Office for the Protection of the Constitution; nationwide, it is classified as a suspected case.
©Keystone/SDA
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