The awakening of civil society? Thousands of people are demonstrating across Germany against the far right accused of undermining democracy, with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in their sights, some of which are calling for a ban.
From medium-sized towns to large metropolises, the mobilization is spreading, at the rate of several gatherings per day for a week. Until Sunday, around a hundred demonstrations have still been announced, often under the slogan “Together against the extreme right”.
Trigger of the movement: the revelation on January 10 by the German investigative media Correction from a meeting in Potsdam, near Berlin, where, in November, a plan for mass expulsion of people of foreign origin was discussed.
Among the participants were a figure from the radical identity movement, the Austrian Martin Sellner, and members of the AfD.
The story shocked a country which seemed to have accepted as inevitable the surge in the polls of this formation hostile to migrants created 11 years ago.
This “scandalous meeting” revived “the fear of deportations of millions of citizens or non-citizens, a fear which is part of the critical legacy of National Socialism”, explains to AFP Hajo Funke, political scientist specializing in far right.
A few days after these revelations, around 20,000 people demonstrated in Berlin and 10,000 in Potsdam, including Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The activists and organizations who called for these rallies seemed to be the first to be surprised by the crowds.
End of “normalization”
It seems to bear witness to a mobilization of the “silent majority” for the defense of democracy recently called for by the president of the domestic intelligence services (BfV) Thomas Haldenwang.
The demonstrations “are encouraging and show that we, democrats, are more numerous than those who want to divide us,” commented Olaf Scholz.
The AfD has taken advantage in recent months of the insecurity of the population resulting from a new influx of migrants into the country and the permanent quarrels between the three parties of the government coalition, against a backdrop of economic recession and high inflation.
The party is firmly established in second position in voting intentions (around 22%) behind the conservatives.
In its strongholds in the former GDR, it even comes out on top with more than 30% in the three Länder of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg where regional elections are being held in September.
After the shock of 2017 which marked its entry into parliament, the AfD has integrated itself into the political landscape, even if all the parties rule out allying with it.
It is led by a duo of leaders who say they represent the conservative bourgeois center.
Since the Potsdam meeting, “this normalization of the party is complete”, judges Mr. Funke, even if the party has said it does not endorse the “remigration” project presented by Martin Sellner.
The scandal revealed “the true face” of the party, said SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil during a debate in the Bundestag.
Ban the AfD?
The voices calling for its ban, carried especially by the chancellor’s party, are increasing.
Even if it has little chance of succeeding, a petition demanding that the constitutional rights of Björn Höcke, leader of the AfD in Thuringia and considered the strongman of the party, be withdrawn from him has also collected more than one million signatures after the revelations of Correction.
In its Land, the party has been placed under increased surveillance, with the intelligence services judging that it defends unconstitutional positions. This is also the case for the Saxony-Anhalt branch, also in the east, and for the AfD youth organization in Brandenburg, the state around Berlin.
In this context, “the state has a duty to study a possible ban on the AfD,” declared former Social Democratic President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Thierse.
The launch of a procedure in this direction – very long and complicated – is however viewed with skepticism by most observers, who fear that failure would further fuel the popularity of the AfD.
But “if it is proven that a party wants to transform the country into a fascist state, it must be banned, regardless of its strength,” said environmentalist vice-chancellor Robert Habeck in an interview with the magazine Stern.