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PROTESTS

Tens of thousands flood protests against far right in Germany

Tens of thousands gathered across Germany again on Sunday to protest the far-right AfD, after it emerged that party members discussed mass deportation plans at a meeting of extremists.

Published: 20 January 2024 17:55 CET
Updated: 21 January 2024 15:56 CET
A demonstrator holds a placard with crossed-out AfD sign, referring to Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during a demonstration against racism and far right politics in Frankfurt am Main
A demonstrator holds a placard with crossed-out AfD sign, referring to Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during a demonstration against racism and far right politics in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany on January 20, 2024.  (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

The influx of demonstrators was so large in Munich that organisers were forced to cancel a planned march and ask people to disperse for safety reasons.

Organisers said some 50,000 people had turned up to the demonstration, twice as many as were registered for the event.

An earlier estimate announced to the crowd had put the figure at 200,000, according to an AFP journalist.

Police estimated a figure somewhere in the middle, around 100,000, according to the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Those who made it to the site of the planned protest carried signs saying “Nazis out” and “never again is now”.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Sunday the protestors “give us all courage”.

“They defend our republic and our constitution against its enemies,” Steinmeier said in a video message.

Some 250,000 people had already gathered in cities across the country on Saturday, according to ARD estimates.

Demonstrations were called in some 100 locations across Germany from Friday through the weekend, including in Munich, Berlin and cities in the east of the country where the AfD has its strongholds.

A demonstrator holds a placard on her head reading "AfD - no"

A demonstrator holds a placard on her head reading “AfD – nope” during a demonstration against racism and far-right politics in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany on January 20, 2024. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

READ ALSO: ‘Silent majority’ marches against Germany’s far-right AfD

‘Take a stand’

The wave of mobilisation 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 “non-assimilated citizens” at a meeting with extremists.

A demonstrator holds a placard with crossed-out AfD signs and a doll representing Thuringia’s regional AfD party leader Bjoern Hoecke at the demonstration. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

Among the participants at the talks was Martin Sellner, a leader of Austria’s Identitarian Movement, which subscribes to the “great replacement conspiracy theory that claims there is a plot by non-white migrants to replace Europe’s “native” white population.

READ ALSO: AfD denies plans to expel unassimilated foreigners

News 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.

The anti-immigration party confirmed the presence of its members at the meeting, but has denied taking on the “remigration” project championed by Sellner.

In Cologne, organisers estimated 70,000 people had joined a protest in the city on Sunday, while in Bremen, local police said 45,000 people had turned out in the centre.

A person holds up a placard reading “Say Nope to AFD” as she takes part in a demonstration against racism and far right politics, in Erfurt, eastern Germany on January 20, 2024. (Photo by JENS SCHLUETER / AFP)

But leading politicians including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined a demonstration last weekend, said any plan to expel immigrants or citizens alike amounted to “an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us”.

PODCAST: Germany’s citizenship law reaches crucial stage and could the AfD be banned?

He urged “all to take a stand — for cohesion, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany”.

‘Huge uncertainty’

Interior 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 “the horrible Wannsee conference”, where the Nazis planned the extermination of European Jews in 1942.

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the opposition conservatives CDU party, also wrote on X that it was “very encouraging that thousands of people are demonstrating peacefully against right-wing extremism”.

Not only politicians but also churches and Bundesliga coaches have urged people to stand up against the AfD.

The protests against the far right could “restore trust in democratic conduct”, Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told broadcaster Welt TV.

Jews in the country had felt “huge uncertainty” added to by a wave of anti-Semitic incidents following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Schuster said.

READ ALSO: Right-wing faction of Germany’s conservatives form splinter party

Protesters first gathered last weekend in Berlin and Potsdam, where the extremist meeting was held, and have gathered pace since.

On Saturday, around 35,000 people gathered in the centre of Frankfurt, responding to the call to “defend democracy” against the AfD.

“Demonstrating against racism is a must,” protester Maria told AFP in Frankfurt.

“Germany has developed in such a way that racism occurs everywhere in Germany,” she said.

A similar number, some carrying posters like “Nazis out”, turned up in the northern city Hanover.

Another 30,000 turned out in the western city of Dortmund.

Protests were also held in cities including Braunschweig, Erfurt and Kassel and many smaller towns, mirroring mobilisation every day over the past week.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

INTERVIEW: ‘Failed climate policies are fuelling far-right politics in Germany’

Alt-right political parties tend to oppose environmental protections, but is there a connection between their political success and climate policy failures? Author and thought-leader Sandrine Dixson-Declève explains why Germany may be having a ‘1930s moment’, and why the next elections are gravely important.

Published: 17 May 2024 15:24 CEST
INTERVIEW: 'Failed climate policies are fuelling far-right politics in Germany'

It’s understood that far-right and populist political parties tend to either downplay the realities of climate change, or block progressive policies that would try to mitigate its impacts. But the link between failed climate policies and the recent rise of populist parties is rarely addressed.

Speaking as a panellist at the Green Tech Festival in Berlin on Thursday, climate policy thought-leader Sandrine Dixson-Declève voiced concern that poor climate and economic policies are fuelling the popularity of far-right politics in Germany and across Europe. 

Co-president of the Club of Rome, Dixson-Declève works to promote policies that she believes would help secure a sustainable future for humanity. Such policies are laid out in the book Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity, that she co-authored.

The Local spoke with Sandrine Dixson-Declève about Germany’s climate policy failures, and why she thinks the upcoming European elections are of the utmost importance.

The shortcomings of Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ had serious political consequences

Having been a contributor and advisor to Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition), Dixson-Declève has followed German politics and environmental policy for years.

“I believe that one of the biggest mistakes was that we politicised energy policy in Germany from the outset,” she told The Local, adding, “Merkel actually accepted the big green push to pull out of nuclear, which actually created a big mess.”

Germany’s anti-nuclear energy movement dates back to the 19070s, and led to the foundation of the Green party. Under Merkel’s leadership, a plan was adopted to phase out nuclear power with the last three nuclear power plants taken offline in 2023.

But losing nuclear power as an energy source came with some serious consequences.

“The first big mess was the continued burning of coal,” Dixson-Declève explained. “The second big mess was Nord Stream 2, and that led to the invasion of Ukraine…because it gave Putin power.”

Still, she wouldn’t suggest that Germany try to revive its nuclear power now: “I believe that Germany needs to really think through the next steps.”

READ ALSO: ‘Nuclear power is a dead horse in Germany’: Scholz rejects reopening plants 

Protestors run past riot police

A wave of protestors break through police lines at Lützerath. Open pit coal mining in west Germany destroyed most of the Hambach Forest, as well as dozens of villages such as Lützerath. At both sites massive citizen protests were met with brutal police evictions. Photo by Paul Krantz.

Energy efficiency is the missing piece to Germany’s climate plans

How to build up renewable energy infrastructure is at the centre of most discourse around curbing fossil fuel use, but using the energy we have more efficiently arguably deserves more immediate attention.

“The other missing link, which no one talks about, is energy efficiency,” Dixson-Declève said. “Actually the best energy is the energy you don’t use. That is unsexy, and that is why energy efficiency hasn’t been taken up the way it should have been since 2010.”

While working on climate and energy plans in 2010, she says she came across a study that said Europe could wean itself off of Russian gas just by putting energy efficiency requirements in place for buildings.

In 2022 the European Commission finally began to take this idea seriously when Germany and Europe suddenly needed to replace Russian gas imports, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Another massive energy saver that has been politicised for all the wrong reasons in Germany is heat pumps.

According to Eurostat data, about half of all energy consumed in the EU is used for heating and cooling, and most of that energy comes from fossil fuels. Heat pumps are significantly more efficient than boilers and allow for greater use of renewable energy sources.

But when Economy Minister Robert Habeck led an effort to promote heat pumps by banning new fossil-powered heating systems, conservative and far-right parties jumped on the issue as if it were an attack on personal freedoms. 

“As environmentalists, we need to get better at translating the environmental narrative into something that resonates with people,” said Dixson-Declève. 

READ ALSO: Reader question – How do I install a heat pump in my German property?

A unified coalition government that is serious about climate protections might have better communicated to people that heat pumps would ultimately save them money: “They should have been enabled in a way that truly assisted people in getting the heat that they needed in an affordable way at the right time.”

‘I am very scared we are in a 1930s moment’

Whereas the coalition government has largely failed to communicate to voters how environmental policies will improve their lives and save them money, conservative and far-right parties have done extremely well at hijacking the narrative. 

The European People’s Party (EPP – the EU’s largest conservative party), for example, is particularly adept at using citizens’ economic concerns to block environmental policies.

Having analysed the EPP’s manifestos, Dixson-Declève notes that they acknowledge the need to mitigate climate change, but say that protections cannot cost. 

“I think the EPP has done a very good job both of putting in fear of the greens, [as if] they’re only going to think about green climate policies and not about social policies [whereas] we’re here to think about you.”

Sandrine Dixson-Declève with Earth for All

Sandrine Dixson-Declève holds up a copy of the book ‘Earth for All’ alongside two of the book’s co-authors. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Wolfgang Kumm

Germany’s far-right parties tend to use similar messaging to try and convince voters that they will better improve the lives of citizens than the current coalition parties have. 

READ ALSO: Why are the far-right AfD doing so well in German polls?

Nearly 100 years ago, the National Socialist (Nazi) party succeeded in drumming up major support along similar lines.

Speaking as a panellist at Berlin’s Green Tech Festival, when asked how she thought European politicians were doing on climate issues, Dixson-Declève described them as deer in the headlights, adding, “I am very scared we are in a 1930s moment”.

“I think that in the 1930s we didn’t see Hitler coming, we didn’t read the tea leaves,” she told The Local, adding that in the present moment, “people are suffering. When people suffer, they look to anything, any message that’s going to make them feel like that next leader is going to help them.” 

She also suggests that we can’t count on the youth vote to save us, citing Argentina and Portugal as two places where young voters have actually pushed politics to the right recently.

READ ALSO: A fight for the youth vote: Are German politicians social media savvy enough?

“This is a tipping moment politically, and if we’re not careful, it could explode in our faces,” said Dixson-Declève. “We need to get as many people to vote this year [as possible]. It’s an absolutely fundamental vote, alongside the United States, in order to make sure that we don’t slide to the right across Europe.”

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