The story so far: Hundreds of thousands of protestors have descended on German streets over the last week, with banners reading “Nazis, no thank you” and “It feels like 1933, AfD ban now.” The nationwide demonstrations unfolded in response to a media report, which said members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party allegedly participated in a meeting to discuss forced deportations of millions of Germans, all immigrants. The gathering was reminiscent of “the horrible Wannsee conference” of 1942, where the Nazis infamously planned the systemic extermination of European Jews, said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to a media outlet. The report offered a glimpse into how far-right actors and organisations network, and the influence they exert on German politics.
Demonstrations gained momentum from Hamburg to Postdam, where the meeting was held, under the call of #TogetherAgainstRight. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, participating in the protests, told the media that any plan to expel immigrants is “an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us.”
What was the trigger?
It started with an investigation into a “secret plan.” Media outlet Correctiv on January 10reported that AfD members, along with supporters of the extremist Identitarian Movement, furtively met on November 25 to discuss a “masterplan” of “remigration.” Martin Sellner, leader of the Identitarian Movement and far-right activist, reportedly proposed to “extract” asylum seekers, non-Germans with citizenship and ‘non-assimilated’ German citizens. The discussions are centred around the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, a belief that non-white migrants in Europe seek to replace Europe’s ‘native’ white population. Mr. Sellner reportedly plans to move “foreigners” to a “model state” in North Africa. According to Collectiv, members did not object to the plan, only expressing concerns about its feasibility.
The AfD confirmed its members were present for the November meeting, but denied their participation in a deportation discussion.
People attend a demonstration against the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), right-wing extremism and for the protection of democracy in Berlin, Germany, January 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
The protests come at a time when the AfD is soaring in popularity in national polls with more than 20% support — ahead of Mr. Scholz’s Social Democrats party — months before three major State elections in eastern Germany. The AfD enjoys a strong support base among voters there. Intelligence authorities have labelled the party’s local branches in these regions as “secured extremists.” Ulrich Siegmund, an AfD politician from one such region, reportedly spoke of ideas to make Saxony-Anhalt “as unattractive as possible for this clientele” in his meeting.
Also Read | Germany’s AfD conundrum
The report triggered outrage from politicians, church leaders, even Bundesliga football managers. A demonstration in Hamburg, which drew 50,000 people, had to be dismissed due to “safety concerns,” the police said. Public broadcaster ARD reported waves of mobilisation have been planned across 100 locations. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on January 21 said the protestors “give us all courage,” and expressed hope the “society will wake up and that the silent majority will finally take a stand against extremism in our country.”
Why is AfD popular in Germany?
AfD is the third largest party in the Bundestag. It is also the second-most popular in Germany according to the latest polls — with a 23% approval rating as compared to 10.3% in the 2021 elections. Critics have attributed AfD’s popularity to a growing resentment among voters concerning inflation, and an increase in immigration as Germany opens its borders to displaced citizens from Ukraine and the Arab world. Mr. Olaf’s government recently pushed through legislation that will ease the process for people to gain citizenship.
The far-right party was founded in 2013 around a single-issue campaign: to object to Eurocentricism. They rallied against German taxpayers’ money being used to bail out other economies. AfD’s Alice Widel recently pushed for ‘Dexit’, Germany’s withdrawal from the European Union, which AfD believes will fix a “democratic deficit” in the nation. Their stance has pivoted since. The party embraced anti-Muslim, racist sentiments as Germany welcomed millions of refugees in 2015 from war-torn nations — a shift which swelled its popularity, allowing AfD to emerge as the largest Opposition party in the 2017 federal elections. The party’s 2017 manifesto read “Islam does not belong to Germany” and called Muslims “a big danger for our state, our society and our system of values.” Hate crimes also rose in parallel: 2020 saw 900 Islamophobic hate crimes, with 80 mosques attacked during the year.
Explaining their popularity, G. Sampath of The Hindu previously noted that AfD “stoked a sense of betrayal felt by many in Eastern Germany — the sense that a government that has done little for them, even though they ‘arrived’ in 1990.” In comparison, the government’s welfare policies for people who “are not even German, don’t speak their language, and follow a religion that ‘isn’t German’” are seen to push conservative middle-class voters towards the far-right party.
In response to the investigation, AfD said it had no plans to pursue mass deportation and that the ‘master plan’ was not part of its party policy. It has previously denied that it is a right-wing extremist party.
Some AfD leaders have vocally expressed their anti-immigration stance in the past. Former AfD spokesperson Christian Luth said earlier: “We can always shoot [Muslims] later. That’s not an issue. Or gas them, as you wish.” (He was dismissed by the party after these remarks became public.) Germany’s post-war Constitution is informed by its genocidal history and is designed to nip the Nazi ideology in the bud, outlawing hate speech, extremism and Nazi denialism. Some AfD politicians, however, described the Nazi era as just a “speck of bird poo” on German history. Another said Germany was “crippled” by its “politics of remembrance” and must “reverse it by 180 degrees”.
Following a spate of far-right violence, Stanly Johny noted in The Hindu that “when it comes to immigrants, Muslims, Germany’s past crimes and German nationalism, both AfD leaders and the neo-Nazis often speak the same language.”
Correctiv’s report said that based on the discussions of the furtive November meeting, there are no “differences between their views and those of the far-right ideologues”.
Why are the protests relevant?
The wave of mobilisation could reel in AfD’s popularity ahead of regional elections and the European Union poll in June, some say. A Forsa poll showed support for the AfD dropped 2 percentage points to 20%, the lowest level in four months. “The demonstrations against the AfD are supported by 37% of Germans and they are showing an impact,” INSA chief Hermann Binkert told Reuters.
AfD has witnessed momentary dips in popularity in the past due to right-wing violence and infighting over the party’s ideology. Some members favour expelling extremist members (such as those who subscribe to the ‘great replacement’ theory) so that AfD can be presented as a party for the “conservative middle class that wants nothing to do with neo-Nazis,” as Mr. Sampath explained.
Moreover, Germany is gripped by a political conundrum around trying to buck the rise of radical right-wing parties. Some politicians proposed the possibility of a ban on AfD, or less severe measures such as withholding funding or stripping some individuals of rights. A Constitutional Court on January 23 in a landmark ruling said Germany can cut off state funding to the radical right-wing NPD Party. It argued that the “(Die Heimat) aims to replace the existing constitutional system with an authoritarian state based on an ethnic ‘people’s community’,” and its ideas disrespect the human dignity of minorities and migrants. Germany’s intelligence agencies in 2022 classified AfD as right-wing extremists, and a ‘suspected threat to democracy.’ It became the first party to come under official surveillance in Germany’s post-Nazi history. Correctiv in its investigation said the “plans that were drafted on this weekend in Potsdam are nothing less than a fierce attack on the German constitution itself.”
The protests also hold significance for the moral fabric of post-war Germany. Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews told Welt TV that the Jews in the country felt “huge uncertainty” amid anti-Semitic incidents after Israel declared war on Hamas. The protests against far-right extremism, he said, could “restore trust in democratic conduct.”
