MUNICH, Germany
\nHundreds of thousands joined rallies against the far-right AfD party in Germany on Sunday, capping a week-long wave of protest that has seen demonstrators turn out in unusually large numbers across the country.
\nBetween Friday and Sunday alone, protests were organized in some 100 locations, with organizers Campact and Fridays for Future estimating that over 1.4 million people had gone out into the streets to send a \u201csignal against the AfD and the rightwards drift in German society.\u201d
\nThe influx of demonstrators was so large in Munich on Sunday that organizers were forced to cancel a planned march and ask people to disperse for safety reasons.
\nAround 100,000 had turned up for the protest, according to local police, four times as many as were registered for the event.
\nAnother 100,000 people gathered to protest in Berlin on Sunday evening, according to police figures cited by regional broadcaster RBB.
\nThe wave of mobilization against the far-right party was sparked by a January 10 report by investigative outlet Correctiv, which revealed that AfD members had discussed the expulsion of immigrants and \u201cnon-assimilated citizens\u201d at a meeting with extremists.
\nAmong the participants at the talks was Martin Sellner, a leader of Austria\u2019s Identitarian Movement, which subscribes to the \u201cgreat replacement\u201d conspiracy theory that claims there is a plot by non-white migrants to replace Europe\u2019s \u201cnative\u201d white population.
\nNews of the gathering sent shockwaves across Germany at a time when the AfD is soaring in opinion polls, just months ahead of three major regional elections in eastern Germany where their support is strongest.
\nThe anti-immigration party confirmed the presence of its members at the meeting, but has denied taking on the \u201cremigration\u201d project championed by Sellner.
\nProtests against the AfD and the far-right thinking behind the deportation plan first came together last weekend in Berlin and Potsdam, where the extremist meeting was held, and have gathered pace since.
\nOn Sunday, demonstrators in the capital carried signs with slogans such as \u201cno place for Nazis,\u201d and waved their phone lights together in front of the German parliament.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s good that something finally happened, that the silent majority isn\u2019t so silent anymore,\u201d IT worker Lydia Steffenhagen told AFP at the protest in Berlin.
\nIn Dresden, the capital of the eastern region of Saxony, where the far-right party is leading in the polls, authorities had to alter the course of a protest march.
\nThe procession was lengthened to make space for an \u201cenormous number of participants,\u201d police said on X, formerly Twitter.
\nOrganizers estimated 70,000 people had joined a protest in Cologne, while in Bremen, local police said 45,000 people had turned out in the center to demonstrate.
\nKatrin Delrieux, 53, said she hoped the protests against the far right would \u201cmake a lot of people rethink\u201d their positions.
\n\u201cSome might not be sure whether they will vote for the AfD or not, but after this protest they simply cannot,\u201d she told AFP in Munich.
\nPoliticians, as well as church leaders and Bundesliga football managers have called on people to take a stand against the far right.
\nChancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined a demonstration last weekend, said any plan to expel immigrants or citizens alike amounted to \u201can attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us.\u201d
\nHe urged \u201call to take a stand \u2014 for cohesion, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany.\u201d
\nInterior Minister Nancy Faeser went so far as to say in the newspapers of the Funke press group that the far-right meeting was reminiscent of \u201cthe horrible Wannsee conference,\u201d where the Nazis planned the extermination of European Jews in 1942.
\nThe protests against the far right could \u201crestore trust in democratic conduct,\u201d Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told broadcaster Welt TV.
\nJews in the country had felt \u201chuge uncertainty\u201d added to by a wave of anti-Semitic incidents following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Schuster said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MUNICH, Germany Hundreds of thousands joined rallies against the far-right AfD party in Germany on Sunday, capping a week-long wave of protest that has seen demonstrators turn out in unusually large numbers across the country. Between Friday and Sunday alone, protests were organized in some 100 locations, with organizers Campact and Fridays for Future estimating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n