Powerful demonstration for democracy in Berlin

2024-02-03 16:43:51, Kosova & Bota CNA

Several tens of thousands of people responded to the call to protest against right-wing extremism in Berlin. The Berlin police announced that more than 120,000 people participated. Demonstrators in front of the Bundestag building chanted, "All together against fascism," or "All of Berlin says stop AfD," according to an AFP reporter. Unlike other protests, the "Hand in Hand" network had called for the protest to mobilize citizens at the federal level under the motto "Wir sind die Brandmauer" - "We are the protective wall" and for "the protection of society open and democratic".

Powerful demonstration for democracy in Berlin

"We want to show that we, as a very large alliance, can go out together on the streets," said organizer Samira Ghandour from the organizing team to ARD. The activist works for the organization "Fridays for future", one of the 1,300 organizations from civil society, culture and sport that called for the protest in Berlin. Ghandour spoke of "a huge momentum" and that the protests will not fade.

The reason for the protests were the publications of the "Correctiv" platform on January 10, about a meeting in November of last year, where right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis, representatives of the AfD, took part, where they openly talked about mass deportations from Germany and specifically about racism. "Racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of hostility against certain groups are on the rise," said the publication of the "Hand in hand" alliance for the protest. "We call for the normalization of right-wing extremism in Germany and Europe to be stopped." .

Powerful demonstration for democracy in Berlin

Scholz: Protests are a strong signal for democracy

Political parties were not part of the organizers of the protest, but various politicians took part, such as the chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party, Saskia Esken, and the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, SPD, who held a "Red Card for the Nazis" placard.

Chancellor Scholz has praised this weekend's protests across Germany as a "strong signal" for democracy and the constitution. "Whether in Aizen, Homburg or Berlin: In small and large cities across the country, citizens are coming together to demonstrate against oblivion, against hatred and its incitement this weekend too," the German chancellor wrote on Platform X Scholz himself was part of such a protest in Potsdam in January./ DW