Janice R. Andrews
This past weekend, protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party spread throughout the nation. Roughly 1.4 million people demonstrated against the party’s growing power. The protests were held in response to a recent investigative report that exposed conversations for mass deportations among AfD members.
Unexpectedly massive crowds in Hamburg and Munich caused rallies to disperse; aerial photos showed throngs filling major squares and avenues, despite the bitterly cold January weather. According to police reports, over 100,000 individuals gathered on the grounds of the Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, on Sunday in Berlin.
With references to the Holocaust and Germany’s dark past under Nazi control, placards during the marches emphasised Germany’s historical responsibility to oppose the extreme right. Protest signs bearing slogans like “Never again is now” emphasised how urgent the marchers felt.
An investigative investigation that exposed an AfD meeting with far-right extremists in Potsdam where plans for a “remigration” campaign were discussed set off the protests. The plan, spearheaded by Austrian Identitarian Movement leader Martin Sellner, sought to undo the process of foreign settlement by concentrating on asylum seekers, non-German citizens, and “non-assimilated” citizens.
Less than six months remain until Germany’s European parliamentary elections, and national surveys show that the AfD is still in the lead, although slightly behind the conservative CDU/CSU combination. However, rising living expenses, a budget crisis, and the continuous immigration debate are causing the center-left governing coalition’s support ratings to drop.
Voters in Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia are becoming more and more in favour of outlawing the AfD before to the autumn regional elections. German legal groups denounced the “remigration” plans, likening them to the 1942 Wannsee Conference.
Despite the significant legal obstacles, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated that she was open to the idea of outlawing the AfD. However, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann voiced doubt, highlighting the necessity of a good conclusion to prevent an AfD PR win.
Prominent CEOs in Germany have also voiced their opposition to the AfD, citing worries about how it will affect Germany’s reputation as a desirable location for skilled labour and investment.
Triggered as “right extremist” in three German states, the AfD brushed off calls for its outlawing as “undemocratic” and charged investigative reporters with bugging their private gathering.
These protests, which are larger in scope than those that occurred in 2017 and 2018 in the wake of the AfD’s election to the Bundestag, represent a notable manifestation of public opposition to the far-right party.
