In many cities, tens of thousands of people are once again taking to the streets against right-wing extremism and the deportation plans of the AfD. taz journalists report from Berlin and Dresden.
Many people participate with signs in the demonstration of the alliance “We are the firewall” for democracy and against the extreme right Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa
DRESDEN/BERLIN taz | In retrospect, the original idea of a human chain around the Bundestag seems cute. It would probably have to have been the size of Lake Constance for this to be possible. 300,000 people gathered in the capital this rainy Saturday to protest against the right under the slogan #WeAreTheFirewall. The alliance of civil society organizations “De la Mano Contra la Derecha” called for the demonstration.
Since Correctiv Research revealed right-wing extremists' “remigration” plans at a meeting in Potsdam, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets each week. Strong connections between CDU politicians and far-right and far-right politicians were also revealed. “The CDU was also in Potsdam” or “The CDU embraces the Nazis” reads some posters in front of the Bundestag. Correctiv CEO Jeanette Gusko says she didn't expect such huge protests. “We knew that the investigation was politically explosive, but what is happening now is unique in the history of the Federal Republic.”
The meeting in Potsdam did not surprise them, several speakers affected by racism and discrimination reported on Saturday. It only confirms what they experienced every day. “For us, the danger posed by right-wing extremism is not abstract, but real,” says Elena Kountidou, director general of Neue Deutsche Medienmacher. The “normal racist state” fills her with fear and accompanies her life “in an unbearable way,” says Sultana from Erfurt. This Saturday she reports on her experience as a woman affected by racism in Thuringia.
However, the problem is not exclusively the AfD, says another speaker. “We have a problem of human rights and respect.” To combat right-wing extremism, we must combat all forms of misanthropy. “We need a firewall that protects those who must have courage to achieve their freedom,” says Sultana. The solution would be to defend every human life in solidarity. “It doesn't matter if you eat sausages or are vegan, if you are heterosexual or from a rainbow family, if you come from the city or the country, we need you!” shouts a grandmother from the Grandmothers Against the Right initiative.
The bourgeois parties are also responsible. What is happening now is not happening in a vacuum, Sultana says. “The government, the CDU and the FDP are part of the problem. “We must make a social policy for everyone to stop the AfD,” she demands. The “so-called centrist coalition” is leaning more and more to the right, says a spokesperson for the “We against Brandenburg” network, which supports refugees in a “small town in Brandenburg.” “'I'm the chancellor of deportations,' if that's not right-wing, then I don't know what is right-wing!” he says.
The latest generation also thinks the same. “As repulsive as I find the usual suspects, Weidel or Höcke, behind them is a much broader system that we have built up for centuries, in which people are exploited by a powerful minority,” says one speaker. For this reason, Última Generación decided to join the protests against the right “in order to combat misanthropic ideologies on a large scale.”
The protests had an effect: for the first time in seven months, the AfD fell below 20 percent nationwide, says one speaker. However, attending protests is not enough, says Jeanette Gusko. Civil society must now move out of the private sphere into the public sphere and defend democracy.
“Now is the time to have a new hobby. And the fans are called democracy.”
The event will be accompanied musically by Nina Chuba, Deichkind and Apsilon und Wassermann. As the song “Hand in Hand,” written specifically for the rally, is performed, the crowd is asked to hold the hands of the people next to them and stretch their arms in the air. What follows are some tense but supportive walks on the Bundestag lawn. After all, people surround the entire Bundestag building. It still worked with a kind of human chain.
According to the police, 30,000 people are on the streets of Dresden
The theater square in front of the Semper Opera in Dresden could barely contain the crowd. But the police's cautious initial estimates of 30,000 protesters would mean that the number of participants at the start two weeks ago was not fully reached. Under the motto “We are the firewall of Dresden”, almost 200 clubs and institutions called for resistance against the “threatening normalization of right-wing extremism”, as stated by moderator Michael Nattke from the Saxon Cultural Office.
Original banners and posters illustrated this intention. “Those who sleep in democracy will wake up in dictatorship,” she warned. “Yes to your concerns, no to your answers,” read one clever sign. “I'm afraid,” said one protester simply, while a “Prevent Krahlschlag” sign alluded to the AfD's main candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah.
Representatives of the Jewish communities in Dresden were “very concerned.” One businessman was concerned about attracting foreign skilled workers in a xenophobic climate. The Protestant regional bishop Tobias Bilz only spoke after a demonstration about a kilometer long through the city center, passing by the synagogue. His Catholic brother Heinrich Timmerevers also participated.
Despite the protest nature, a happy and friendly atmosphere once again reigned at Theaterplatz. Barely two dozen police officers did not have to intervene. There was only one heated exchange of words on the sidelines between them and a rank-and-file union, the “Free Employees Union,” FAU, which felt hampered. At the front of the demonstration, the best-known organizer of the Querdenker demonstrations and mayoral candidate, Marcus Fuchs, attempted to film protesters and conducted interviews with like-minded people. The meeting management tried in vain to prohibit him from doing so.