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Demonstrators at a rally against the right in Potsdam

Photo: IMAGO / Martin Müller

At demonstrations in Berlin, Potsdam and other cities, tens of thousands of people took a stand against the right. In Berlin alone, 25,000 people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, according to police and organizers. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), both of whom have their constituencies in Postdam, took part in the Brandenburg state capital. According to the initiator, Lord Mayor Mike Schubert, 10,000 participants came together there. The demonstrations come a few days after a networking meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam became known.

"I stand here as one of thousands of Potsdamers who stand up for democracy and against old and new fascism," Baerbock told the German Press Agency. She and the Chancellor wore burgundy scarves with the inscription "Potsdam shows its colours".

In Kiel, according to the police, around 7000,8000 people protested against the AfD and right-wing extremism, the organizers spoke of 5000,2400. According to the police, there were around 700 people in Saarbrücken. About 2000 people gathered in Duisburg to protest and about <> in Augsburg. On Friday evening, around <>,<> people demonstrated in front of the AfD party headquarters in Hamburg.

On Wednesday, the media company Correctiv published research results on the meeting in a Potsdam villa. In November, individual AfD functionaries as well as individual members of the CDU and the arch-conservative "Union of Values" also took part. The former head of the far-right Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, confirmed to the German Press Agency that he had spoken about "remigration" there. When right-wing extremists use this term, they usually mean that a large number of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress. According to Correctiv research, Sellner named three target groups: asylum seekers, foreigners with the right to stay – and "non-assimilated citizens".

Wüst: "AfD is a Nazi party"

CDU party leader Friedrich Merz said after a board meeting on Saturday in Heidelberg with a view to the upcoming elections, including in three eastern German states: "We will go into these elections with a very clear, very tough confrontation, especially against the AfD."

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) told the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag newspaper that the meeting in Potsdam with individual AfD functionaries had shown that the second-largest opposition party in the Bundestag was not a protest party. He made it clear, as he did a few months ago: "The AfD is a dangerous Nazi party."

Green Party leader Omid Nouripour demanded consequences: "If people meet to plan a coup or deportation of millions of people, then this is to be prosecuted," he told Die Welt, "with the full force of the law." The task of all democrats is to clearly name the AfD as the "enemy of our democracy, our economy, our society."

FDP politician Marie Agnes Strack-Zimmermann found clear words at her party's New Year's reception. "When a party like the AfD becomes stronger, we have to make sure that the issues are taken away from them," says the member of the Bundestag. To this end, one must also speak out clearly against the AfD in the private sphere. This is the only way to stop the influx of people into the party. "The bigger the pile of shit, the more flies are on it," says Strack-Zimmermann.

Debate on AfD ban

After the meeting, the debate about a possible ban on the AfD had flared up again. However, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is sceptical about such a proposal. "I can't judge the chances of success – a trial would probably take a very long time," Steinmeier told the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday. The former president of the Federal Constitutional Court, Hans-Jürgen Papier, told the Tagesspiegel (Saturday) about a possible ban: "That would only play into the hands of the AfD." The Basic Law sets high hurdles for a ban on political parties in Article 21.

FDP leader Christian Lindner argued similarly on Sunday at an event of his party in Düsseldorf: The AfD does not draw a line of separation from right-wing extremists – but there would be no greater triumph for them than if the democratic parties knew no other way. CDU leader Merz also said he thought little of a ban.

In Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, the AfD is considered to be a right-wing extremist by the respective Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and nationwide it is considered a suspected case. The party has been at an all-time high in the polls for months. State elections are scheduled for September in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony. In all three countries, the AfD is currently ahead in the polls, in some cases significantly.

lpz/dpa