BERLIN, GERMANY – JANUARY 25: Protesters maintain up the lights of their cell phones in a sea of lights demonstration towards right-wing extremism and Donald Trump on January 25, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. A wide range of civil rights and environmental teams have organized the occasion as a public present of resistance towards the threats to democracy posed by right-wing politicians and events. Of their assertion the organizers additionally title U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk as endangering civil society by means of their keen use of disinformation for political achieve. (Photograph by Omer Messinger/Getty Photos)
Omer Messinger | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
BERLIN (AP) — Tens of hundreds of Germans on Saturday protested in Berlin and different cities towards the rise of the far-right, anti-immigrant Different for Germany (AfD) get together forward of the Feb. 23 general election.
At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, an enormous crowd blew whistles, sang anti-fascist songs and carried banners denouncing AfD. Activists mentioned they hoped the rally additionally would draw consideration to different far-right parties in Europe and the brand new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Those that gas racism and assault local weather safety will not be simply campaigning, they’re endangering lives,” Luisa Neubauer with the Fridays for Future local weather group advised the group, which police estimated at 35,000. Police estimated the group on the Cologne rally at 40,000.
Europe’s largest financial system has been shaken after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed late final yr in a dispute over learn how to revitalize amid stagnation.
Saturday’s protests passed off whereas AfD opened its election marketing campaign within the central metropolis of Halle, the place get together chief Alice Weidel, AfD’s candidate for chancellor, spoke to about 4,500 individuals.
HALLE, GERMANY – JANUARY 25: Tech billionaire Elon Musk speaks reside through a video transmission throughout a speech by Alice Weidel, chancellor candidate of the far-right Different for Germany (AfD) political get together, on the AfD election marketing campaign launch rally on January 25, 2025 in Halle, Germany. Musk is an outspoken supporter of the AfD and is urging German voters to forged their ballots for the get together. The AfD is at the moment in second place in polls forward of federal parliamentary snap elections scheduled for February 23. (Photograph by Sean Gallup/Getty Photos)
Sean Gallup | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
Weidel has the backing of Elon Musk, who addressed the rally remotely. His open assist has induced an uproar in Germany.
Mainstream events have declared they won’t work with the AfD. The opposition center-right Union bloc and its candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, prime pre-election polls, adopted by the far-right get together.
Merz mentioned Friday his get together subsequent week will bring motions to Parliament to toughen migration coverage, one of many essential election points. That doubtlessly leaves Merz open to accusations of breaking longstanding pledges to not work immediately or not directly with the AfD, if the motions go to a vote and move with the get together’s assist.
Merz earlier vowed to bar individuals from getting into the nation with out correct papers, and to step up deportations if he’s elected chancellor. His feedback got here after a knife attack in Aschaffenburg by a rejected asylum-seeker left a person and a 2-year-old boy useless.
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