in Germany, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate against the far right

Around a hundred demonstrations against the AfD party have taken place since Friday across the country, bringing together more than 1.4 million people in total.

On the banners, the placards and in the slogans taken up by the crowd, always the same message against the AfD, xenophobia and hatred. Hundreds of thousands of Germans demonstrated all weekend against the far right and its AfD party, which is at its highest in the polls. Around a hundred demonstrations have taken place since Friday January 19 throughout the country, bringing together more than 1.4 million people in total, according to the organizers.

Demonstrations following the shock in the country after the revelation on January 10 of a meeting of far-right leaders to discuss a plan for mass expulsion of people of foreign origin. In the Berlin procession, Heike is worried about the progression of the far right: “What is happening at the moment in Germany is really very serious. My grandparents lived through fascism, my parents too and I don’t want history to repeat itself in Germany. That’s why we have to take to the streets.”she pleads.

Should the far-right movement be banned?

In recent days, 30,000 people marched in Dortmund and more than 50,000 in Hamburg and Cologne. In Munich, overwhelmed by the crowds, the organizers even had to interrupt the demonstration. In front of the Reichstag in Berlin, 100,000 people gathered on Sunday January 21, despite the cold. “Here in Berlin and in all cities, I am very happy that there are many people who are mobilizedés”, confides a demonstrator, who speaks French.

This mobilization testifies to the shock caused by the revelation on January 10 by the German investigative media Correctiv of a meeting of extremists in Potsdam, near Berlin, where, in November, a planned mass expulsion of foreigners or of foreign origin was discussed. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser compared this meeting in the press to the “horrible Wannsee Conference”, where the Nazis planned the extermination of European Jews in 1942.

With the radicalization of the AfD, a question has arisen in the public debate: should the far-right movement be banned? The political class is divided, as is the population. “VSThis will not be of much use, because if we ban the AfD, it willThis society will divide even more and this will make the party even more popular, notes Dagmar, 70 years old. The problem is here. This must not happen. It’s up to democratic parties to ensure that fewer people vote for the AfD“.

The party is now the second political force in the country. In its bastions of the former East Germany, the far right is even in the lead with more than 30% of voting intentions.