More than 150 thousand people demonstrate in Berlin against the extreme right

More than 150 thousand people, according to police data, demonstrated this Saturday in Berlin around the headquarters of Parliament with the aim of symbolically forming a “cordon sanitaire” against far right.

Due to the large influx, organizers gave up on the idea of ​​physically forming a human chain around the Bundestag and instead urged participants to hold hands at one point during the protest.

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“In recent months there has been a huge twist to the right”, declared the refugee activist Tareq Alaows in front of the crowd, who carried signs with slogans such as “Out with the Nazis” or “Never again”.

Alaows He indicated that he personally had not “astonished” the revelations about the far right’s “fascist plans” to expel millions of people of foreign origin from the country.

Anyone who wants to defend democracy must fight for human rights, he stated and added that this is why “It’s no use if everyone democratic parties “They turn right.”

Several musical performances were interspersed between the speeches of several activists, while some 700 police officers were guarding the concentration, which passed without incident.

Under the motto “We are the cordon sanitaire”the organizers – the “De la Mano” platform – aspired to bring together at least 100,000 people to protest against the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The appeal was signed by more than 1,700 civil society organizations, including the Ver.di, GEW and IG trade unions metalNGOs such as Amnesty International or Attack, Caritasthe evangelical Church and environmental groups such as BUND, Extinction Rebellion or Last Generation.

The one in Berlin is just one of around 150 calls for demonstrations against the extreme right in various parts of the country this weekend, in what is intended to be the culmination of a wave of mobilizations that have already gathered more than 100 thousand in the German capital on January 21st.

The trigger for the protests was the revelation by the investigative media ‘Liquid Paper‘, of which members of the AfD They attended a far-right meeting where plans to expel millions of people of foreign origin from the country were discussed.

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholztoday gave its support to the mobilization with a message on the social network Eisenachin Homburg or in Berlin“In large and small cities across the country, many citizens come together to demonstrate against forgetfulness, hatred and harassment.”

This constitutes “a strong signal in favor of democracy and our Constitution”concluded.

Source: Elcomercio

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