Demonstration against the far right: march in Munich canceled due to too many people

As on Saturday, tens of thousands of people again demonstrated against the far right across the country. Last week the occasion sparked a mobilization of rare proportions, as the influx in Munich was such that a planned march through the streets of the Bavarian capital had to be interrupted. Organizers said 50,000 people showed up, double the number that registered.

Other estimates put the figure higher—up to 200,000. Police, for their part, estimated the crowd at 100,000 people, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported. In the processions, some waved signs saying “Nazis out” or “Never again, now.” According to ARD channel estimates, about 250 thousand people have already gathered in dozens of cities across the country on Saturday. In Frankfurt, the center of German finance, 35,000 people marched in defense of democracy.

Calls to gather on Sunday were made in about forty cities such as Berlin, Munich and Bonn, as well as in smaller localities. A demonstration was also organized in Dresden, the capital of Saxony, a stronghold of the anti-immigrant and anti-system Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. In Cologne, organizers estimated Sunday’s crowd at 70,000, and in Bremen, local police counted 45,000 demonstrators in the center.

“The Terrible Wannsee Conference”

The mobilization reflects the shock caused by the Jan. 10 revelation by the German investigative media outlet Correctiv of a meeting of extremists in Potsdam, near Berlin, where a plan for the mass expulsion of foreigners or expatriates was discussed in November. . Interior Secretary Nancy Feiser went so far as to comment to the press that the meeting was reminiscent of the “horrible Wannsee Conference,” at which the Nazis planned the extermination of European Jews in 1942.

Participants included radical identity movement activist Austrian Martin Zellner and members of the AfD. Martin Zellner has presented a project to send back to North Africa up to two million people – asylum seekers, foreigners and German citizens who will not be assimilated, says Corrective.

The revelation shocked Germany as the AfD continues to advance in the polls, months before three important regional elections in the east of the country, where voting intentions for the far-right party are even higher than in the rest of the country.

Football and the church are mobilized

The anti-immigration movement confirmed its members’ presence at the meeting, but denied any commitment to the “remigration” project led by Martin Sellner. Many political leaders, including Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who took part in the demonstration over the weekend, have stressed that any plan to expel people of foreign origin is an attack on democracy.

Mr Scholz called on “everyone to take a stand – for unity, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany.” “The Republic is rising,” the weekly Der Spiegel commented on its website after Saturday’s rallies. Demonstrations against the AfD have been taking on a daily rhythm for a week now. About a hundred rallies were planned from Friday to Sunday.

Politicians, religious officials and coaches in the Bundesliga, Germany’s soccer championship, have called on the population to mobilize against the party, which is currently at the peak of voting intentions. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Sunday that the demonstrators “give us all courage.” “They are defending our republic and our constitution from their enemies,” he said in a video message.

The far right opposes the unpopular Olaf Scholz

The AfD has in recent months taken advantage of a sense of popular discontent caused by a new influx of migrants into the country and persistent infighting between the three parties of the government coalition, amid an economic downturn and high inflation.

The far-right party, which entered parliament in 2017, is firmly in second place in voting intentions (around 22%) behind the Conservatives, while Olaf Scholz’s government coalition with environmentalists and liberals faces record unpopularity.

In its strongholds in the former GDR, the AfD even leads opinion polls with more than 30%. Six months before the European elections, several EU countries are facing a sharp rise in far-right forces that could upset key balances in the European Parliament.