Chancellor Olaf Scholz has once again strongly condemned alleged plans by right-wing extremists and politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to mass deport migrants, drawing parallels to National Socialist racial ideology.
“I say it with absolute clarity and severity: right-wing extremists are attacking our democracy,” he said in a video published on Friday, referring to reports of a secret meeting at which right-wing extremists, AfD politicians and business leaders allegedly discussed the deportation of Millions of people from Germany.
Scholz: “Right-wing extremists are attacking our democracy”
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“If there is something that must never again have a place in Germany, then it is the ethno-racial ideology of the National Socialists,” Scholz continued, referring to the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945. “That is exactly what it is the disgusting resettlement plans of these extremists. Just the thought sends shivers down your spine.”
Addressing migrants and Germans with a migration background directly, the Chancellor said: “You belong to us! Our country needs you!”
Scholz welcomes demonstrations against right-wing extremists
Since the German research portal Correctiv published the news last week of the right-wing extremist meeting in a hotel in the eastern German city of Potsdam in November, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest against right-wing extremism, the far-right AfD.
On Friday evening, a demonstration in Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city, ended early after the number of participants far exceeded expectations. Local police confirmed that around 30,000 people were present at the start of the event, while the AFP news agency later reported around 50,000. According to Spiegel, the organizers spoke of up to 80,000.
Tens of thousands of people protested on the streets of Hamburg and elsewhere in the country. Image: Jonas Walzberg/dpa/picture Alliance
Local newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt said the event ended at 4:45 p.m. local time for safety reasons amid fears that if it snowed, “people could fall into the Alster,” which flows into the Elbe in Hamburg.
Around 90 more demonstrations are planned in cities across Germany this weekend, including on Saturday in Nuremberg, Dortmund, Hanover, Erfurt, Magdeburg and Frankfurt and on Sunday in Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Leipzig and Bonn.
Scholz also took part in one of the protests in Potsdam last weekendImage: Liesa Johannssen/Portal
Scholz himself took part in a demonstration in Potsdam last Sunday together with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and expressly welcomed this weekend's protests. “I was there too,” he said. “What we are currently experiencing in our country affects us all – each and every one of us.”
Scholz's comments came on the day the Bundestag voted to relax naturalization laws and expand access to dual citizenship in Germany.
“Those who care for themselves and their families, who choose our country and share our values, will in future be able to apply for a German passport after five years instead of after eight years,” he said, adding that no one would be forced to “deny” . their roots.”
German society is calling for action in the run-up to the local elections
News of the far-right rally in Potsdam attracted additional attention in Germany as the AfD is currently the second largest party nationwide, just months before three major regional elections in the eastern German states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. where their support is strongest.
Hajo Funke, a political analyst specializing in right-wing extremism, told the AFP news agency that the “scandalous meeting” had “revived the fear of the deportation of millions of citizens or non-citizens, a fear that is part of the criticized legacy of Nazism.”
A demonstration also took place in Jena on Friday, the poster in the middle of the picture reads “Don't give the AfD a chance”Image: Bodo Schackow/dpa/picture Alliance
The AfD itself responds that the reported plans to deport people who have acquired German citizenship are expressly not their policy and were not put forward by the members present.
German domestic intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang called on the “silent majority” to wake up and take a clear stand against extremism in Germany.
A group of East German bishops warned against “distrust and contempt” for democratic processes and warned that populist, right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic positions were becoming “increasingly socially acceptable.”
Footballers and coaches in the German Bundesliga have also spoken out against the AfD: “Anyone who does nothing now has learned nothing from school and history,” said Christian Streich, manager of SC Freiburg, and numerous clubs called on their fans to demonstrate on.
Thousands demonstrate against the right-wing extremist AfD in Germany
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mf/lo (AFP, dpa)
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