Rallies have been organized across the country since Friday, to demand, among other things, the banning of the far-right AfD party, leading in the polls and accused of having taken part in discussions during a meeting of extremists in favor of the mass expulsion of foreigners or people of foreign origin.
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In Germany, the weekend was marked by protests against the far right. At the end of a new day of mobilizations across the country, the Friday for Future organization and the citizens’ alliance Campact, which are among the organizers of the movement, announced on Sunday January 21 that 1.4 million people had gathered since Friday, during around a hundred demonstrations.
This popular movement of rare magnitude follows the revelation by the press, at the beginning of January, of a meeting of extremists in Potsdam, where a plan for the mass expulsion of foreigners or people of foreign origin was discussed in the presence of elected from the far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) party. The affair has relaunched the debate on a possible ban on the party, which continues to progress in the polls.
“The Nazis outside”
On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated again against the AfD and its radical ideology, notably in Munich (south) where the march had to be interrupted due to the influx of demonstrators. The Bavarian capital saw its largest gathering at this stage of the mobilization, with police estimating the crowd at around 100,000 people. In the processions, some brandished signs “The Nazis outside” or “Never again, it’s now.”
On the Reichstag esplanade in Berlin, participation was also massive on Sunday, estimated at 100,000 people according to the police cited by RBB radio, 350,000 people, according to the organizers.
Some 250,000 people had already mobilized on Saturday across the country in dozens of cities, according to estimates by the ARD channel.
