In Germany, over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against the far-right Alternative for Germany party, AFD.
The background is a secret meeting where representatives of AFD would have discussed how people with a migration background should be forced to leave the country if AFD wins power.
Jona Källgren writes that after years of growing extremism, the silent majority in the country has woken up and taken to the streets and squares.
There were demonstrations that probably no one had expected. In Munich and Hamburg, the police had to ask the organizers to cancel the demonstrations because so many people came that it became a security risk.
In Berlin, the entire large square in front of the Reichstag building was filled with demonstrators waving placards against the AFD. Even in small towns in former East Germany, where AFD has grown strongest, streets and squares were filled with people demonstrating against racism. According to estimates, well over a million people participated in the demonstrations over the weekend.
AFD is growing strongly
Had the meeting in Potsdam last November only involved neo-Nazis and minor parties, there would not have been much of an uproar. But the AFD is a strongly growing party, the fourth largest in Germany’s Bundestag and the second largest in the country’s opinion polls. In the former East Germany, it is the strongest party ahead of the autumn state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt.
That is precisely why the revelation of the secret meeting by the online publication Corrective led to enormous concern and anger. Representatives of a major party, which may actually take power, discussed together with business leaders how to expel millions of people, including German citizens.
It was the final straw for many. The silent majority, the 80 percent of the country’s voters who vote for a party other than AFD, had enough and the demonstrations show the anger in the country.
Can AFD be banned?
It sounds almost absurd. Can a party that still has such strong support as AFD in Germany be banned? However, in Germany – where memories of the Nazi party using democratic elections to seize power and then promptly abolishing democracy are still present – non-democratic parties can actually be banned.
Of course, it has never been tried on a party sitting in the Bundestag and right now there is probably not enough political support to start something like that. But during the demonstrations in Berlin and around the country, this was precisely what many demanded. It is not completely impossible.