Germans Plan More Than 200 Rallies Against Far-Right Extremism

Chris Reiter
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised pro-democracy demonstrators as tens of thousands gathered across the country for a fresh wave of rallies against right-wing extremism.

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On Saturday, 30,000 people are expected at a demonstration in Dusseldorf and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is set to speak in Osnabrueck. Overall, more than 200 events are planned this weekend, according to public broadcaster ARD.

“Our country is on its feet right now,” Scholz said in a video message on Saturday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Millions of citizens are taking to the streets. For democracy, for respect and humanity.”

The outcry — which included nearly 1 million people protesting last weekend — was triggered by revelations that senior officials from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, took part in meetings with right-wing extremists to discuss proposals for mass deportations of asylum seekers, illegal migrants and even German nationals deemed insufficiently “assimilated.”

Read More: Why Deportation Talk by Germany’s AfD Stirs Protest: QuickTake

Margot Friedländer, who survived a Nazi death camp, warned of echoes of the 1930s and called for wider swathes of the public to stand up. “More should be loud,” the 102-year-old native of Berlin told ARD. “I am grateful for those who take to the streets. But it will always be those who are for us anyway.”

Another parallel with pre-Nazi Germany that’s raising concern is the country’s growing political fragmentation. In the latest sign of the trend, a new far-left movement around former Linke lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht held its first convention on Saturday.

The party is critical of the European Union and will add a new challenger to the three ruling parties, which are all trailing the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the AfD in polls.

The AfD has accused the press of inflating concerns about deportations. Maximilian Krah, the party’s lead candidate for upcoming European elections, posted a video last week saying they would only involve migrants that live off taxpayer money and not legal residents who have jobs.

It’s very unusual for people to take to the streets on behalf of civil society issues, according to Christoph Möllers, a law professor at Humboldt University in Berlin.

“Normally you would say that people are demonstrating against something or for a specific political project,” he said in an interview with Deutschlandradio. “But here it seems that many people have the impression that our public order is actually under threat.”

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