Germany: in Berlin, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators against the far right

Correspondent in Berlin

The organizers had announced the formation of a human chain around the Reichstag, the large glass dome housing the German parliament (Bundestag). Rather, thousands of distinct groups converged on Saturday towards the nerve center of German power to assert their hostility to the far-right AfD party.

Nearly 150,000 people demonstrated silently at the call of a multitude of civil society organizations. This is the first large gathering in the capital since the publication, in mid-January, by a research group (Correctiv), of a secret far-right project aimed at deporting German citizens of foreign origin deemed undesirable. . This past week, 400 gatherings of this type were recorded throughout the country, bringing together 1.6 million people according to police sources.

“AfD stinks”, “Nazis are pigs”, are among the most familiar slogans brandished by the crowd: mainly representatives of the German middle bourgeoisie, almost no immigrants, few traders or craftsmen. “When we see the approval rate garnered by the AfD, we say to ourselves that this situation will return to normal, which will have very concrete consequences in our lives and threatens what constitutes our most precious asset, democracy. So it’s time to wake up,” says Félix, speaker and father of a young child.

The members of the Alternative for Germany, a party which received the majority of voting intentions in the regions of the former GDR and is now gaining ground in the west of the country, are attributed the same epithets that the Nazis attributed to themselves - even to Jews in the 1930s. “It is difficult not to draw a parallel between what is happening in the country today and the situation at the time of the Weimar Republic. In this party (the AfD), people clearly profess National Socialist ideas and are encouraged to do so because no one contradicts them,” worries Katja, a forty-year-old teacher in the company of a friend.

The first to be targeted is the leader of the AfD in Thuringia, Bjorn Höcke. Despite the dissolution of his radical movement (the Wing), this movement theoretician remains one of the most influential figures in the party. The latter foresees a victory in the elections planned in this land in the center-east of the country, in September 2024.

From traditional parties of the left and right, to the climate movement Friday For Future, 1,700 organizations had called for the Berlin demonstration. And once again, this was duplicated throughout the country, including in small towns in the east traditionally supported by the far right, and this for the third consecutive weekend. If political leaders support these movements, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz who took part in a demonstration in Potsdam, uncertainty weighs on their prospects.

Demanded by the demonstrators, a possible ban on the party - in the name of its actions and speeches deemed contrary to the German constitution - constitutes a long and perilous path. Already, the legal and police guerrilla war started by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution against certain sections of the AfD could get bogged down. Plans are also circulating in the Bundestag aimed at sheltering the Constitutional Court from the far-right party, but their adoption requires a transpartisan consensus.

Also read: Rise of the AfD: Germans lack confidence

If the CDU, in opposition, has vigorously reaffirmed the cordon santé rule supposed to prevail against the AfD, the Christian Democratic party recently ruled out collaboration with the government on the subject. The latter remains deeply unpopular among the population and the Berlin demonstrations also reflected the political excitement reigning in the country. “Here at least you don’t feel alone, there is a feeling of cohesion,” explained Suzanne, 35, one of the participants in the Berlin gathering.