They say “nein” to the projects of the extreme right.

More than 100,000 people demonstrated across Germany on Saturday (January 20) against the AfD party, whose members recently discussed the mass expulsion of foreigners or people of foreign origin at a rally of extremists.

Some 35,000 people gathered in Frankfurt, the stronghold of German finance, behind a banner reading “Defend democracy – Frankfurt against the AfD”.

A similar number of demonstrators converged in Hanover (north), some holding “Nazis out” signs.

Protests were reported in Braunschweig, Erfurt, Kassel and many other smaller towns, mirroring the daily mobilizations this week.

In total, from Friday to Sunday evening, calls for demonstrations were launched in around a hundred places, including Berlin on Sunday.

Politicians, religious leaders and coaches from the Bundesliga, the German football championship, have called on the population to mobilize against the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The movement was triggered by the revelation on January 10 by the German investigative media Correctiv of a meeting of extremists in Potsdam, near Berlin where, in November, a planned mass expulsion of foreigners or people of foreign was discussed.

Among the participants were a figure from the radical identity movement, the Austrian Martin Sellner, and members of the AfD.

Martin Sellner presented a project to send back to North Africa up to two million people - asylum seekers, foreigners and German citizens who would not be assimilated -, says Correctiv.

The right wing of the CDU splits

The revelation shook Germany as the AfD soars in the polls, a few months before three important regional elections in the east of the country, where the party has the most supporters.

The anti-immigration movement confirmed the presence of its members at the meeting, but denied adhering to the “remigration” project led by Martin Sellner.

Many political leaders, including Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who took part in a demonstration last weekend, have stressed that any plan to expel people of foreign origin is an attack on democracy.

Olaf Scholz called on “everyone to take a stand – for cohesion, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany”.

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the conservative CDU party, said it was "very encouraging that thousands of people are demonstrating peacefully against extremism."

But in addition to members of the AfD, two members of the CDU, belonging to Werteunion, the right wing of the party, also participated in the meeting disclosed by Correctiv.

See alsoGermany: should the AfD be banned?

Werteunion leader Hans-Georg Maassen announced his split from the CDU on Saturday.

The group claims 4,000 members.

“By a large majority, the members of the Werteunion voted for the creation of a party of the same name,” said Hans-Georg Maassen.

"The party could already compete in the regional elections in eastern Germany and work with all parties (...) who are ready for political change in Germany," he added, not excluding in particular cooperation with the AfD.

With AFP

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