“The whole of Berlin stops the AfD”
Tens of thousands are forming a “firewall” against the right
February 3, 2024, 5:56 p.m
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The nationwide protests against right-wing extremism are not stopping – on the contrary. More than 200,000 people are demonstrating in Berlin, Freiburg and Augsburg alone. Many of the demonstrators are specifically against the AfD – and hope that the demonstrations will have more than a purely symbolic effect.
Total strangers hold hands and hold them up. “We are the human firewall,” a voice echoes from the stage. According to police reports, more than 150,000 people gathered in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin during the midday hours. For democracy and tolerance, against right-wing, hatred and the AfD. The organizers, an alliance called Hand in Hand, even spoke of 300,000 participants. They had registered a third of them.
In a number of other cities this Saturday there are once again many people taking to the streets: around 30,000 in Freiburg, around 25,000 in Augsburg, around 10,000 in Krefeld, according to police information. There are also other demos across the country, some with four-digit numbers of participants.
For a good three weeks, tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets all over Germany against the right and the AfD. The trigger was research by the media company Correctiv into a meeting between radical right-wingers and individual politicians from the AfD, CDU and Values Union in Potsdam in November. There, the former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he spoke about the concept of so-called remigration. When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress.
Protester: Shut up for too long
Berliner Claudia Kirchert, who came to the Reichstag building with her daughter, was shocked by the results of this research. The 49-year-old talks about doing something about the feeling of powerlessness by participating in the large group. “I probably wouldn’t have gone to such a big demonstration a year ago.” The hope now: The AfD and right-wing populists are signaling that there is a counterweight.
Protester Patrick Stein argues similarly: “I think we kept our mouths shut for too long.” He carries a sign in the style of cigarette pack warnings: “Racism causes significant harm to you and the people around you.” As the crowd chants “All of Berlin hates the AfD,” a moderator has a different idea: “All of Berlin is stopping the AfD,” he says, and the crowd applauds and joins in. Many young people, some with migrant backgrounds, speak on stage. There are also many middle-aged, middle-class people in the crowd, braving the rain, which initially just drizzles and later becomes heavier.
You can see colorful flags, gray-haired people with signs against deportations, people dancing, and several families with children. And also some who see themselves as victims of right-wing extremist fantasies: “I’m gay. I would certainly be one of the groups that would be discriminated against by this right-wing extremist mob,” says 59-year-old Armin Dötsch, who was one of the first in the morning red jacket and with signs from the social association SoVD is on site. He also emphasizes that the social glue of society must be maintained and improved.
“If the AfD is the answer, then how stupid was the question?”
Serkan Bingöl came with a group of refugees, four or five young men standing around him. The 36-year-old is a Berliner with a German passport and a high school teacher. He says: “We want to set an example for solidarity and that we are against discrimination. And that we think it would be nice if a society with diversity instead of simplicity continues to exist in Germany.”
Several of the people interviewed that day expressed a lack of understanding towards people who see the AfD as a solution to their dissatisfaction. A sign sums it up like this: “If the AfD is the answer, then how stupid was the question?” 27-year-old Stefan Morlock hopes that the demonstrations will have a more than symbolic impact on society and politics: “The action is evident in the elections, but also in everyday life. That you stand up for the weaker people in society.”
Neubauer criticizes politics
Several speakers called on the democratic parties to oppose the shift to the right and to counter right-wing demands and narratives. According to the speech manuscript, Luisa Neubauer, face of the German climate movement, said: You cannot shout “Peace, joy, democracy for all” at the demonstration in one day and then return to parliament and bring deeply right-wing words, language and politics into the democratic center. “That doesn’t work.”
According to the police, more than 100,000 demonstrators came to Berlin’s government district on January 21st. The Bundestag, which has been based in the converted historic Reichstag building since 1999, is the central symbol of German democracy. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already assessed the numerous planned anti-right demonstrations this weekend as a “strong sign” for democracy and the Basic Law.