Local sources estimate the number of demonstrators at about 250,000 people (Anatolia)
About 250,000 people demonstrated in several German cities yesterday, Saturday, against the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which was recently reported to have discussed a plan to mass expel foreigners from the country.
The city of Frankfurt, the country's financial capital, witnessed a massive demonstration in which about 35,000 people participated, according to local police. The demonstrators raised banners calling for the defense of democracy and denouncing the extremist party.
The city of Hanover in the north of the country also witnessed a similar demonstration, during which demonstrators raised banners likening the extremist party to Nazism and calling for their exit from the German political scene.
In the city of Dortmund, located in the west, about 30,000 people demonstrated, according to local police.
Demonstrations also took place in many other cities, including: Erfurt, Aachen, Kassel, and a number of other small cities.
The public television channel ARD said that the number of demonstrators who went out yesterday, Saturday, to denounce the German far right in various parts of the country reached about 250,000 people.
It is expected that other demonstrations against the party will take place on Sunday in several cities, including: Berlin and Dresden in the state of Saxony, the stronghold of the Alternative for Germany party, which is anti-refugees and immigrants.
The demonstrators demanded the exit of the extremist Alternative for Germany party from the country's political scene (Anatolia)
Political leaders, religious figures and coaches in the German Football League called for demonstrations against the extremist party, which is currently topping the opinion polls.
Mobilization against the party began after the German fact-checking platform "Correctiv" revealed on January 10 that extremists held a meeting to discuss a plan to collectively expel some foreigners and people of foreign origins from Germany.
The platform said that members of the Alternative Party, neo-Nazis, and businessmen met in November 2023 in the city of Potsdam, adjacent to Berlin, to discuss a plan to expel foreigners, or those of foreign origin, from Germany.
The Alternative Party later confirmed that it was in discussions with an Austrian extremist party that supports repatriation, but denied supporting the idea of mass expulsion of foreigners.
The co-founder of the Austrian Identity Movement, Martin Sellner, presented a project to return about two million asylum seekers, foreigners and unintegrated German citizens to North Africa, according to Korektiv.
Among the AfD members, the meeting was attended by the personal representative of the party's co-leader, Alice Weidel, Roland Hartwig, MP Gerrit Hoy, and the head of the AfD's regional parliamentary bloc in Saxony, Ulrich Siegmund.
The Alternative Party explained that Hartwig presented a project for a social networking site during this meeting, and the party added that Hartwig did not present political strategies, nor did he convey to the party Sellner’s ideas regarding immigration policy.
The meeting sparked a wave of criticism and discontent in political circles and in the German street, and German Interior Minister Nancy Weiser considered that this meeting was reminiscent of the “terrible Wannsee Conference,” where the Nazis planned to exterminate European Jews in 1942.
A number of political leaders, including Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Schulz, stressed that any plan to expel people of foreign origin represents an attack on democracy.
Schulz called on "everyone to take a stand for cohesion and tolerance, and for the sake of German democracy."
Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, said: "It is very encouraging that thousands are demonstrating peacefully against extremism."
The Alternative Party, which is under the supervision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the German domestic intelligence service), is making progress in the opinion polls.
Source: Al Jazeera + French