Now it’s fixed. Next Sunday evening in Munich, various organizations, initiatives and groups are calling for another meeting for democracy and against right-wing extremism. It will take place on Theresienwiese, its motto is: “Sea of lights for democracy, against racism, anti-Semitism and hate speech”. The start is scheduled for 6 p.m.
After the demonstration at the Siegestor, which attracted around 200,000 people two weeks ago, it will be the second large gathering in Munich as part of the nationwide wave of protests against the AfD. According to the will of the new demo alliance, the rally on Theresienwiese should be the start of a series of actions by civil society in order to maintain and promote the enthusiasm for democracy.
“We will not allow,” says the call for Sunday, “people in our country to be excluded and persecuted. We defend ourselves against right-wing extremism and disgusting deportation fantasies. The silent majority is no longer silent!”
On Sunday there should be only a few speeches on stage, but a lot of music, says Luc Ouali, spokesman for the organizational team and active in “Fridays for Future”. The focus should be on the cohesion of the democratic center. “You don’t have democracy,” says Ouali, “you live democracy.”
“Fridays for Future” once again provided the impetus for the planned rally last week. According to SZ information, representatives from four groups met on Monday afternoon and agreed on how to proceed.
In addition to the Munich “Fridays” group, the groups Lichterkette and München ist bunt as well as Bellevue di Monaco, the residential and cultural center for refugees, were there. One of the first signatories of the demo call was “Morgen”, the umbrella organization of migrant organizations in Munich.
Established demo organizers are supporting the young activists from the climate movement. It is important to the initiators that as many supporters and organizations as possible join the call. It is still unclear whether this time – unlike the demonstration at the Siegestor – parties will also be invited to support the call, says Luc Ouali.
With the motto of the meeting “against racism, anti-Semitism and hate speech”, the organizers are clearly focusing on the fight against right-wing extremism and the AfD. In doing so, they obviously want to consciously appeal to the broad democratic center of society.
The demo at Siegestor on January 21st was directed “together against the right”. This led to not only the AfD, but also the traffic light and Union parties being sharply criticized from the stage, which in turn caused dissatisfaction among many participants. Ouali says that while they continue to criticize the general shift to the right, they are also expressly against the division in society that the far right is striving for.
Originally, “Fridays for Future”, which had already organized the demo at the Siegestor, brought up the idea of a new chain of lights as their next action. 400,000 people came to the original fairy lights in 1992 and protested against “xenophobia”. The idea of a “chain of lights 2.0” has now become the desired “sea of lights”, which is due to the meeting place, the Theresienwiese.
Even though the carnival holidays start next weekend, this date has been chosen, according to the organizers. They want to use the momentum of the protest. There have been demonstrations against the AfD in many cities for weeks. They were triggered by research by Corrective and Greenpeace about a meeting of right-wing extremists and AfD politicians in Potsdam, at which the expulsion of millions of people with a migration background from Germany was discussed.