According to organizers, more than 200,000 people took part in the large demonstration against right-wing extremism in Munich on Sunday. The demonstration had to be stopped for safety reasons because the event area in the city center was completely overcrowded.
“We are approaching 200,000,” was announced over loudspeakers on site shortly before the meeting was called off. As in previous days, crowds had gathered in Munich to send a strong message against right-wing extremism in general and the AfD party in particular. The police assumed there were at least 80,000 demonstrators.
“No tolerance for intolerance”
Many people in Munich turned to posters against right-wing extremist ideas: “Immigrate on your knees,” “Let’s learn from history instead of repeating it,” “No tolerance for intolerance,” “AfD – a nightmare for Germany’ and ‘Brown bottles do not belong in the glass waste container in the Bundestag’, was read there, among other things.
There were also demonstrations in other German cities on Sunday. In Cologne, for example, there was a large audience at the demonstration; organizers even spoke of 70,000 participants at the peak – the police spokesperson described the estimate in the afternoon as “not unrealistic”. The event went smoothly.
According to the Campact network, 50,000 people took part in Bremen. Large crowds were also reported at the start of a demonstration in Stuttgart. Another meeting is planned in Berlin from 4 p.m.
“Weekend of Hope”
Hundreds of thousands had already demonstrated in numerous German cities on Friday and Saturday; the Campact network spoke of approximately half a million participants. Board member Christoph Bautz called it a “weekend of hope”. According to police, 35,000 people took part in Frankfurt am Main on Saturday, and similarly high numbers were reported in Hannover and Dortmund. Thousands were also on the streets in other cities.
Top politicians from various parties supported the meetings. “This is the protection of the Constitution in action,” said Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) during the demonstration in Hannover. He called on people to take a clear stand against the right “wherever there is an opportunity” and stand up for democracy and human rights. “Then Germany has a good future,” Weil said.
Right-wing extremist secret meeting as an opportunity
The reason for the protests is revelations from the Correctiv network about a right-wing extremist secret meeting in Potsdam. Plans were discussed there for a mass deportation of people with a migration background, just like other Germans who support refugees, for example.
Members of the AfD and the right-wing conservative Values Union participated, among others, who decided on Saturday to set up their own party to the right of the CDU and CSU. The demonstrations are also fundamentally aimed against the rise of right-wing extremism in Germany.
Source: Krone
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