2024-01-21 15:47:58
The organizer of an anti-right-wing demonstration in Munich canceled the event due to overcrowding. According to the police, the safety of the participants could no longer be guaranteed. The police assumed there were at least 80,000 demonstrators, the organizer said there were 250,000. On Friday, a demonstration against the right-wing and the AfD in Hamburg was canceled due to the large number of people.
German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier viewed the numerous rallies as an encouraging signal. “They are now standing up against misanthropy and right-wing extremism,” Steinmeier said of the demonstrators. “These people encourage us all.” In a video message, the head of state called for an alliance of all democrats. The future of democracy does not depend on the loudness of its opponents, but on the strength of those who defend democracy. “Let’s show that we are stronger together,” explained Steinmeier.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil told Welt-TV: “It’s really about the defense of democracy and about the decent people in this country becoming loud and clear and clear.” Economics Minister Robert Habeck sees the demonstrations as an encouraging sign for democracy. “It is impressive to see that many people are now taking to the streets and showing the flag for our democracy,” the Green politician told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir also viewed the protests as an indication to the federal government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP to argue less. The AfD benefits from this, the Green politician told Deutschlandfunk: “It’s also about the traffic lights stopping, as well as the democratic opposition from the CDU/CSU, so that we argue like tinkers and thus drive people into the arms of the AfD. ” Klingbeil also wanted less strife in the government. “And that also helps in the fight against the extreme forces, against the populist forces that are trying to destroy this country,” said the SPD co-leader.
There were also increasing warnings from business about right-wing extremism and a further rise of the AfD. Joe Kaeser, the chairman of the supervisory boards of Siemens Energy and Daimler Truck, called on business representatives in a Archyde.com interview to point out the consequences of AfD election successes: “Anyone who votes for the AfD is choosing to lose the prosperity of our country and its citizens.”
Many demonstrators in Munich used posters against right-wing extremist ideas: “Remigrate to your knees,” “Let us learn from history instead of repeating it,” “No tolerance for intolerance,” “AfD – A nightmare for Germany” and “Brown Bottles don’t belong in the waste glass container in the Bundestag,” it read there, among other things.
There were also demonstrations in other German cities on Sunday. In Cologne, for example, there was a large crowd at the demonstration; the organizers even spoke of 70,000 participants at the peak – the police spokesman described the estimate in the afternoon as “not unrealistic”. The event therefore went smoothly.
According to the Campact network, 50,000 people took part in Bremen. Large crowds were also reported at the start of a demonstration in Stuttgart. Another rally is planned in Berlin from 4 p.m.
Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in numerous German cities on Friday and Saturday. According to the police, 35,000 people took part in Frankfurt am Main on Saturday, and similarly high numbers were reported in Hanover and Dortmund. Thousands were also on the streets in Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Halle, Nuremberg, Kassel, Recklinghausen, Braunschweig, Wuppertal, Erfurt and other cities.
The Campact network spoke of a total of around half a million participants on Friday and Saturday. Its managing director Christoph Bautz said it was a “weekend of hope”. Top politicians from different parties supported the rallies.
The reason for the protests are revelations by the Correctiv network about a right-wing extremist secret meeting in Potsdam. Plans for a mass deportation of people with a migration background were discussed there, as were other Germans who, for example, support refugees.
Among others, members of the AfD and the right-wing conservative Values Union took part, which decided on Saturday to found its own party to the right of the CDU and CSU. The demonstrations are also fundamentally directed against the rise of right-wing extremism in Germany.
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