At the election party in an inn in the Potsdam district of Marquardt, top candidate Hans-Christoph Berndt was joined by federal chairmen Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla as well as Thuringian AfD chairman Björn Höcke.
Several young AfD supporters enthusiastically and loudly sang an aggressive song about deportations for several minutes. To the melody of the song “That’s going on. We’re celebrating all night” by the band Die Atzen, they sang: “Hey, that’s going on, we’re deporting them all, all of them.” They also held up the slogan “Deport millions of people” on a board.
“Here we look after everything”
Later, AfD supporters danced on the street in front of the inn to the performance of a singer and his song: “East, East, East Germany”. It says: “In the East, family means mother, father, child, the West doesn’t give a damn because they are so open. Here, everyone looks after everything, here, everyone looks after themselves. In the West, Ali plays cat and mouse with the cops. In the East, you have cows and a chicken coop, in the West, LGTBQ and a bang. East, East, East Germany.”
Among the guests on election Sunday in Potsdam were Berlin AfD chairwoman Kristin Brinker and former Berlin CDU finance senator Peter Kurth. The event was secured by numerous private security guards who checked all visitors and journalists. The police were also present in the small town with a large contingent.
About a hundred meters away, several hundred people demonstrated against the AfD. Posters and banners read “Potsdam Nazi-free,” “Create lawless spaces,” and “No room for the AfD.” Everything was peaceful. Over the course of the evening, some counter-demonstrators managed to get right up to the AfD’s meeting place with a large banner. Police officers positioned themselves between both sides. Eventually, the left-wing demonstrators had to move away again. AfD supporters applauded and sang their deportation song again.
The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution lists the AfD regional association as a suspected right-wing extremist case – this means that organizations are being monitored because “there are actual indications that anti-constitutional efforts are being pursued in them.” The Office for the Protection of the Constitution even considers six AfD state parliamentarians to be confirmed right-wing extremists, including top candidate Berndt.