Hundreds Of Thousands Of People In Germany Are Holding Huge Protests Against The Rise Of The Far-Right
Latest polls have indicated the AfD party is currently in second place in the country’s snap election that will be held on Feb. 23, according to AP.
Hundreds of thousands of people protested in nearly 200 cities across Germany against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the rise of right-wing politics ahead of the country’s upcoming election.
Latest polls have indicated the AfD party is currently in second place in the country’s snap election that will be held on Feb. 23, according to AP.
The AfD was founded in 2013 with anti-immigration, anti-Islam and nationalist views and also has a large neo-Nazi following.
It has promised "remigration" in its manifesto, which is a term commonly used by far-right groups to describe the mass deportation of immigrants, Euro News reported.
The latest protests came after the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a party which is leading in all the polls sought support from the AfD on a bill that would reduce immigration and family reunification rights, according to DW.
Protesters accused the CDU of breaking Germany’s unwritten post-Nazi tradition, in which democratic parties had promised never to pass laws with support from far-right parties like the AfD.
The bill was ultimately rejected by the German parliament but sparked unprecedented protests across the country.
On Feb. 8, more than 200,000 people marched in Munich to protest against far-right extremism.
Organizers said the crowd may have been as large as 320,000.
Many protesters held signs with slogans like, "Racism and hatred are not an alternative."
"We are demonstrating against the right. Never again is now. I find it horrible that right-wing ideas are acceptable again, that this is being said openly again," a protester told Euro News.
Similar protests were also held in other cities, including Hanover, Rostock, Nuremberg, Bremen, Cologne and Leipzig.
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