“The silent majority is no longer silent,” it said in advance of the call for the demo in Munich. The participants are bright and colorful. People are also protesting against right-wing extremism in other places.
According to the police, around 75,000 to 100,000 people took a stand against racism, anti-Semitism and hate speech in Munich that evening with a “sea of lights for democracy”. Some had hung fairy lights, others carried lanterns or flashlights. The organizers speak of 300,000 participants. At the end of the event, a police spokesman said everything was peaceful and calm.
The Theresienwiese, the location of the Oktoberfest in autumn, shone brightly – to make people’s minds brighter, said human rights activist Düzen Tekkal. In her speech, she called for unity for democracy and warned not to get lost in individual interests.
The call for the demonstration, which was initiated by Fridays for Future and supported by a broad civil society alliance, said: “We will not allow people in our country to be excluded and persecuted. We defend ourselves against right-wing extremism and disgusting deportation fantasies. The Silent majority is no longer silent!”
Germany-wide demos
There were also demonstrations against right-wing extremism in other places in Germany. According to the police, up to 4,000 people took to the streets in Itzehoe on Saturday, and around 2,500 people in Flensburg. There were also rallies at the weekend in which the police reported a number of participants in the low four-digit range in Sinsheim in Baden-Württemberg, in Werne and Fröndenberg in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Hamburg and in Einbeck in Lower Saxony.
People across the country have been demonstrating against right-wing extremism and racism for weeks. The trigger was revelations by the media company Correctiv about a meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam in November, which was also attended by AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Union of Values. There, the former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he spoke about the concept of so-called remigration. When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
