“We must not give up the streets and squares to the right-wingers”

It is a first test run for a possible "hot autumn" - and its mixture is controversial: On Monday, there will be demonstrations in Leipzig for the first time against the current crisis policy of the federal government. The left, the AfD and groups from the right-wing spectrum such as the Freie Sachsen party, which the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as right-wing extremists, have called.

On a poster, the Free Saxons advertise online with a "selection of speakers that has probably never existed in the mix". There is a list of Leftist Gregor Gysi alongside Jürgen Elsässer from right-wing populist Compact Magazine and former AfD politician André Poggenburg. What is not clear from the poster: the speakers are not allowed to stand on a stage at the rallies around Augustusplatz.

"We must not leave the streets and squares to the right," Gysi, who has been the leader of the left-wing faction for many years, defended his party's planned demonstration to the editorial network Germany (RND). The event was registered by Leipzig Left Party member of the Bundestag Sören Pellmann.

"In addition, I will say something to the right, namely that our society must not tolerate all right-wing nonsense," Gysi announced in case right-wing extremists should take part in the protest.

The stumbling blocks are inflation and the traffic light coalition's energy and Russia policies. Left chairman Martin Schirdewan predicted a "social catastrophe" in the ARD summer interview and explained: "As a society, we are running into a perfect storm."

Gysi emphasized to the RND that the organizer would have to make use of his domestic rights, "for example, if symbols and flags or AfD signs are shown that go against the grain of the organizer."