Approximately 250,000 people took to the streets in various German cities last Saturday to protest against the far-right party, “Alternative for Germany”, which has recently been reported to have discussed a plan aiming for the mass expulsion of foreigners from the country.
In the city of Frankfurt, the country’s financial capital, a large-scale demonstration took place with a turnout of around 35,000 people, according to local police. The protesters carried banners calling for the defense of democracy and denouncing the extremist party.
The city of Hanover in northern Germany witnessed a similar protest, where demonstrators held up signs comparing the extremist party to Nazism and calling for their expulsion from the German political scene.
In the western city of Dortmund, about 30,000 people demonstrated, as per local police reports.
Protests also occurred in several other cities, including Erfurt, Aachen, Kassel, and a number of smaller towns.
Public broadcaster ARD reported that the number of protesters who took to the streets last Saturday across the country to condemn German far-right extremism reached approximately 250,000.
There are expectations of further protests against the party on Sunday in many cities, including Berlin and Dresden in the state of Saxony, the stronghold of the anti-refugee and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party.
The demonstrators called for the far-right Alternative for Germany party to be expelled from the country’s political scene (Anadolu Agency)
Political leaders, religious figures, and German football league coaches had called for demonstrations against the extremist party, which currently tops the opinion polls.
The mobilization against the party began after the German fact-checking platform “Correctiv” revealed on January 10 that extremists had convened a meeting to discuss a plan for the mass deportation of certain foreigners and people of foreign descent from Germany.
The platform reported that members of the “Alternative” party, neo-Nazis, and businessmen gathered in November 2023 in Potsdam, adjacent to Berlin, to discuss a plan for expelling foreigners or those of foreign origin from Germany.
The Alternative party later confirmed it was having discussions with an Austrian extremist party that supports repatriation, but denied supporting the idea of mass deportation of foreigners.
Martin Sellner, the co-founder of the Austrian Identitarian Movement, presented a plan to repatriate about two million asylum seekers, foreigners, and Germans with integration difficulties to North Africa, according to Correctiv.
Members of the Alternative for Germany party attended the meeting, including the personal representative of the co-leader of the party, Alice Weidel, Roland Hartwig, deputy Gerit Huy, and the leader of the party’s parliamentary group in Saxony, Ulrich Siegmund.
The Alternative party clarified that Hartwig introduced a project for a social networking site during the meeting and added that he did not present political strategies or convey Sellner’s ideas on immigration policy to the party.
The meeting sparked a wave of criticism and outrage in political circles and on the German streets. The German Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser, said the meeting was reminiscent of the “terrible Wannsee Conference,” where the Nazis planned the extermination of the Jews of Europe in 1942.
Several political leaders, including the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, stressed that any plan to deport people of foreign origin represents an attack on democracy.
Scholz called on “everyone to take a stand for cohesion and tolerance, and for democratic Germany.”
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, stated, “It is very encouraging to see thousands peacefully demonstrating against extremism.”
The Alternative party, which is under surveillance by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the German domestic intelligence agency), is making progress in opinion polls.
