Massive demonstrations and new right-wing party: “What is happening in Germany is worrying”

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Not only angry farmers, but also Germany’s “silent majority” is becoming noisy. Since January 12, people have been marching through city centers against right-wing extremism, racism and the AfD. And the demonstrations are getting longer. Last Saturday alone, 300,000 people protested. Hundreds of thousands are on the road again on Sunday. The march continues. New rallies are planned almost every day across the country until early February.

In all German states, in almost all cities and districts, battle cries against the right are heard. “All together against the AfD” is the motto in Stuttgart, “No interest in Höcke” in Erfurt, “The right wing is only good at Werder” in Bremen. And the people of Cologne have “No Kölsch for Nazis”. In Wuppertal we fight “Together and in solidarity! Against exclusion, hatred and agitation!” In Hamburg, banners say ‘Ekelh-afd’ and in Munich it says ‘Fascists are no alternative for Germany’. On Sunday the demonstration there was canceled because there were too many people.

Secret Nazi meeting shocks public

A journalistic revelation caused the protest tsunami ten days ago. The media company Correctiv reported on a right-wing extremist secret meeting that took place in Potsdam at the end of November 2023. Neo-Nazis, senior AfD members and entrepreneurs discussed a master plan for so-called remigration. This aims at the deportation of millions of foreigners in Germany to Africa. Memories of the devastating Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942 are awakened, during which the National Socialists decided to murder millions of Jews.

Felix Neumann of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin describes the secretly bugged scene in the villa in Brandenburg as very threatening: “The meeting serves to network right-wing extremists in Germany. It is alarming that AfD members who can make decisions in the party were involved. Such meetings have taken place before, “but they increase and strengthen the far right,” the security expert continued. “What is happening is worrying and a challenge for the security authorities, society and German democracy.”

Two new populist parties were founded

In eight of the sixteen German states, the AfD has already been classified as safe or suspected right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Nevertheless, a large part of the German population appeared blind in the right eye. According to surveys, if federal elections were to take place now, the AfD would take second place behind the CDU/CSU. In Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia it would become the strongest force. In the autumn there will be state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia.

The Correctiv unveiling comes at a time when right-wing and left-wing populists are establishing new parties. The former chairman of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, still CDU politician Hans-Georg Maassen (61), wants to turn the Values ​​Union association into an ultra-conservative party that “has no firewall” against the AfD. Just a few weeks earlier, former left-wing icon Sahra Wagenknecht (54) had announced her alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). Both new parties share their position on migration, the meaning and purpose of the EU and Putin’s Russia with the AfD. Even the conservative-liberal Free Voters, who have so far been more regionally active and incorporated into the Bavarian state government, are toying with joining the Bundestag.

New competition for the AfD

Felix Neumann is not afraid of a new political alliance. “The new parties will hardly get enough votes to serve, for example, as a coalition partner for the AfD in a future federal government,” says the political scientist. Things may look different in state parliaments or in the EU Parliament. On the contrary, the AfD parties would single out voters.

The ongoing protests are important, the expert said. “They show that Germany has a very stable center that is not focused on the political margins.” Neumann’s recipe against the right is aimed at the government parties: “The government must show more unity in its decisions. Anyone who makes politics must also communicate this. Then you don’t lose so much confidence.”

Source: Blick