The protests took place while AfD was opening its election campaign in the central city of Halle on Saturday.
Thousands of people across major cities in Germany on Saturday protested the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of a 23 February general election.
In one of the protests at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the German capital, participants lit up their phones, blew whistles, and sang anti-fascist songs.
Some activists, including the group calling itself Fridays for Future, dubbed the Berlin rally the “sea of light against the right turn.”
In Cologne, protesters carried banners denouncing AfD. Over 15 thousand people rallied on the city’s streets to protest against the rise of right-wing extremism, according to local reports.
One of the protesters, Thomas Schneemann, said it was most important for him to ”stay united against the far right.” “Especially after yesterday and what we heard from Friedrich Merz, we have to stand together to fight the far right,” Schneemann said.
“We see a party (AfD) that so far gets 20% of votes and might get more, and this party shows a racist, discriminatory, and intolerant attitude openly, and I think it is important to set a signal for a tolerant and active democracy,” said another protester, Britta Straschewski, 36, a teacher from Cologne.
Led by Friedrich Merz, the opposition bloc of Germany’s centre-right parties, the Unions are currently leading pre-election polls, with the far-right AfD in second place.
Merz said Friday that his party will bring motions to toughen migration policy to parliament next week, a move seen as risky in case the motions go to a vote and pass with the help of AfD.
Earlier, he had vowed to bar people from entering the country without proper papers and to step up deportations if he is elected chancellor.
Those comments came after aknife assault in Aschaffenburg by a rejected asylum seeker left a man and a 2-year-old boy dead and spilt over into the election campaign.
According to the Fridays for Future activist group, Saturday’s protest was also aimed at drawing attention to the actions of the new administration of US President Donald Trump and the political lineup ahead of Germany’s election.
The protests took place while AfD was opening its election campaign in the central city of Halle on Saturday.
Party leaders Alice Weidel, AfD’s candidate for chancellor, and Tino Chrupalla were expected to speak to an audience of some 4,500 people.
Weidel again received the backing of Elon Musk, who addressed the rally remotely, but current projections give her no realistic chance of becoming Germany’s leader as other parties refuse to work with AfD.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 59.2 million German voters will be eligible to cast their ballot in the polls scheduled for late February.
Additional sources • AP
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