30,000 people in Cologne, 25,000 in Berlin, 10,000 in Potsdam, tens of thousands in Hamburg. Across the country, supporters of a wide variety of parties and movements are currently coming together to take a stand against the right – and against the AfD.
Demonstrators gave the starting signal last Friday in Hamburg. There, 2,000 people gathered in front of the AfD headquarters and chanted slogans like: “The whole of Hamburg hates the AfD.” Others simply shouted “against the right.” According to organizers, the city center was also so crowded this Friday that protesters had to be sent away.
In Leipzig there was singing and other demonstrators held up signs: “Now we can do better than our grandparents.” Many were concerned about the social climate or expressed their fear of a shift to the right. “Here you don’t feel so helpless,” said a demonstrator to the “Leipziger Volkszeitung”.
What are the results of the protests against the AfD?
The reason for the protests is the reporting by the “Correctiv” research center. Last week this reported on a meeting of right-wing extremists in which politicians from the AfD and CDU took part. The former head of the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” in Austria, Martin Sellner, also agreed star confirmed having attended the meeting. Among other things, the discussion discussed how millions of people with a migrant background could be deported from Germany.
The reports were worrying for many people with a migrant background, but nothing new. This is what Aminata Touré, Minister of Social Affairs from Schleswig-Holstein, said star: “I hope that this wakes people up. The danger that rights pose to our democracy is real and is by no means a fringe phenomenon.”
Now the research has been driving people onto the streets since it was published. It is questionable whether this will dissuade AfD voters from voting for the party. Protest researcher Simon Teune told “Zeit”: “The probability is relatively low that people who are willing to vote for the AfD will be convinced that it’s not a good idea.” But the protests have a different function, says Teune: “They send a signal to people who are interested in democracy that now is the time to deal with what lies ahead. And the institutions to theirs “It is our responsibility to remember that democratic institutions must be protected and that enemies of democracy stand ready to uninstall these institutions.”
Three state associations of the AfD, Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, are classified as “certainly right-wing extremist”. The AfD’s youth organization, “Junge Alternative”, is also considered a “suspected case”.
Sources: information from news agencies,”Time“, “Leipziger Volkszeitung“