Information on the number of participants was not initially available from the Hamburg police. According to the police, around 50,000 people had already demonstrated against right-wing extremism in the Hanseatic city on the Friday before last week.
The Campact association said “at least 821,000 people in 319 locations” took part in the nationwide anti-right demonstrations this weekend. According to the police, around 7,000 people took to the streets in Bremerhaven on Sunday. On Sunday, the police estimated the number of demonstrators in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, at 10,000 people. Rallies were also organized in Zwickau and Hoyerswerda in Saxony and in Kassel in Hesse, among others.
According to police, 100,000 people demonstrated in the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital Düsseldorf on Saturday. There were also larger protests on the same day in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, and Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, where, according to police, 20,000 people each came together. In Bocholt in North Rhine-Westphalia, officials assumed there were more than 9,000 participants, in Lübeck there were 8,000 people and in Hildesheim in Lower Saxony there were around 7,500.
On Saturday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, thousands of people also took part in demonstrations in numerous smaller cities and more rural areas, mostly organized by non-partisan alliances. According to the police, around 2,000 people gathered in Bitburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and around 4,000 people in Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony, on Saturday. In Höxter in Lower Saxony there were 300 participants and in Boitzenburg in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania there were 350 participants.
At a demonstration in his hometown of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony on Saturday, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) made an appeal to citizens. “It is now clear to everyone: our freedom is in danger, our way of life is in danger, our democracy is in danger,” said Pistorius.
“The democracy of the Weimar Republic did not perish because of the strength of its enemies, it perished because of the weakness of its supporters,” he continued. “There were too few who stood up, there were too few who fought for democracy.” Democracy needs commitment, warned Pistorius. “Indifference to democracy leaves you at the mercy of the fascists,” warned the Federal Minister.
The constitutional lawyer Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff, on the other hand, declared democracy in Germany to be stable enough to be able to counter right-wing extremism. “If some people think that the situation is the same as it was shortly before 1933, then that is really hysteria,” she told the newspaper “Neue Westfälische” (Monday). At the same time, she warned of “recognizable radicalization and polarization tendencies.”
The reason for the protests are revelations by the research network Correctiv about a secret meeting of AfD politicians, right-wing extremists and entrepreneurs. According to the research, the participants discussed the expulsion of millions of people with an immigrant background. The demos are also generally directed against right-wing populism and extremism.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) warned of the consequences of such considerations on so-called remigration. “These plans are not only disgusting, but a danger to our country,” Habeck told the news portal t-online. “I also say that as Minister of Economic Affairs. Anyone who even begins to talk about such ideas wants to destroy our economy.” Without people with an immigration background, “Germany would be completely lost,” said Habeck.
According to police, around 910,000 people demonstrated nationwide last weekend. According to the “Democrat Team” website, which provides information about demonstration dates, there have been more than 600 protests since January 12th with a total of more than 1.7 million participants.
