Tens of thousands of people had already braved below-freezing temperatures this week to demonstrate against the party following reports that senior AfD members had discussed a plan to deport large numbers of migrants, evoking comparisons to the Nazi era.
Over the weekend, there was still a lot of anger in the public. Up to 35,000 people flocked to Frankfurt on Saturday under the banner “Defend democracy – Frankfurt against the AfD,” while Hanover in the north saw a comparable turnout, according to the German daily Der Spiegel. There were sizable crowds in Stuttgard, Dortmund, and Nuremberg as well.
Tens of thousands of people turned out for demonstrations on Sunday in Leipzig and Dresden, two of the more established AfD voting bastions, as well as in Berlin, Munich, and Cologne, according to Reuters.
At its height on Sunday, the Munich rally drew close to 100,000 participants, according to local police. The Berlin protest started with close to 30,000 participants, and as it went on, more people showed up, according to Reuters.
Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, hailed the protests as “good and right.” Scholz said he tries to imagine “how the more than 20 million citizens who have a history of migration feel” about the deportation plan in a video message released on Friday night.
A “master plan” for expelling
The news that senior AfD members met late last year and discussed a “master plan” for the mass deportation of German citizens of foreign origin and asylum seekers has infuriated many Germans.
On November 25, neo-Nazis, far-right extremists, and members of the AfD gathered at a lakefront hotel outside of Potsdam.
It wasn’t until January 10 that the meeting was made public by the investigative journalism network Correctiv, which set off a nationwide uprising in Germany.
As per Correctiv’s report exposing the private meeting, the upcoming events at the Landhaus Adlon hotel will resemble a dystopian drama. They are the only ones who exist.
