https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/21/more-than-100000-protest-across-germany-over-far-right-afds-mass-deportation-meetings
Protests held at about 100 locations over party’s meeting with neo-Nazis to discuss deporting those it deems have failed to integrate, including German citizens
The headline is not wrong but somewhat misleading. Yesterday there where more than 300,000 people protesting against the Nazi party (AfD) and yesterday wasn't even the first or the last day of protests.
People are realizing that we are not talking about an ultra-conservative party but about an anti-democratic and racist party that wants to deport millions of people - many of them Germans - from Germany. That is exactly the plan Hitler had and that led to the Holocaust.
Edit:
Those people lost their minds.
The AfD parliamentary group leader for Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, is also in the room. It is he who will, later on in the day’s proceedings, appeal for donations. He has considerable influence within the AfD; the party is currently polling in first place in Saxony-Anhalt. His sales pitch, very much in keeping with the “masterplan” of Sellner, details his ideas to change the image of German streets. Foreign restaurants would be put under pressure. Living in Saxony-Anhalt should be made “as unattractive as possible for this clientele.” And that could be accomplished very, very easily, he claims. His comments could have consequences for the region’s upcoming elections.
https://correctiv.org/en/top-stories/2024/01/15/secret-plan-against-germany/
No more indian / chinese / greek / italian / thai ... restaurants. Only schnitzel and pork roast.
No more indian / chinese / greek / italian / thai … restaurants. Only schnitzel and pork roast.
Thats insane
Good time to become vegan. They can’t be against that!
Of course they can. The following is a AfD request (source: German parliament, auto-translated by DeepL)
AfD demands warning against vegan diet
The AfD parliamentary group is calling for warnings about vegan diets. The Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) should "explicitly and emphatically warn of the dangers of a vegan diet without the additional intake of supplements, especially for risk groups", according to a motion (20/9798). The warnings would have to be visible digitally on the website of the Federal Agency. Furthermore, the warnings should be included in corresponding printed materials, including a list of possible symptoms of malnutrition.
(...)
https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-984214
They are simply against everything. That's the way they operate. Their party platform states that they want to remove all subsidies for farmers. At the same time they are protesting that a very small part of those subsidies is being removed. They try sow chaos, hatred and division. An AfD politician even said: "The worse Germany is doing, the better it is for the AfD"
Fucker should've gone one animal further.
Thats insane
Is it? The German economy soared when all our food was traditional German and so was the entertainment. So obviously people opted comparatively fun activities like overtime in a steel mill.
With all the excitement about the current protests we must not forget, that the current and former governments and all parties currently in the parliament were and are responsible for creating the growth of the AfD and fascist ideology in Germany.
We currently see many politicians applauding the protests. But applauding is not getting us anywhere. We need to demand action.
For non Germans, a few things of what is going on in Germanies executive:
There has been a series of Nazi terror attacks in Berlin, where prosecutors and investigators were found to have "private" meetings with the suspects. Even an attempted murder at a politician remains unresolved despite the suspects being well known to everyone.
There is a group of police officers from Frankfurt who used their access to police information to threaten lawyers, comedians, activits and politician who spoke out against nazi structures and terror. The police officers are still suspended with pay, despite their being a whatsapp group uncovered in which they shared fascists memes, talked about rapeing the corpses of female crime victims, congratulated each other on Hitlers birthday and other heinous shit. They named themselves NSU 2.0 after a Nazi Terror organization that muredered more than a dozen people in Germany between 2000 and 2011 and was likely protected by the interior intelligence.
In the City of Dessau there is a police office, where in 2006 a black man was murdered by pouring gasoline on him and setting him on fire in his cell. To this day the case remained unpunished and the officers present in the timeframe just received a fine of about 10.000€. the head of that police office in 2016 helped to hide the body of an asian student that was brutally raped and murdered by his stepson, who is also the son of another police officer from that office. As a "punishment" he was sent to teach at a police school, and even that was overruled later.
Special police and military units have repeated stolen ammunition and weapons and gave them to nezi terrorists, who prepared for a violent insurrection, including having death lists of politicians and civil society actors they would murder.
After much media attention and great propaganda around it, a woman was convicted for alledgely being head of a leftist terror group that had beaten up fascists in saxony. The conviction was weak, and is mainly based on the single testimony of a former member of that group. Now a member of the AfD, who regularly had access to sensitive information from the case, probably through the prosecutors office, boasted that thanks to him that testimony came to be. He boasted himself with having had the witness beaten up by nazi hooligans in Poland, where the witness had moved. This court case needs to be reopened and the prosecutor needs to be investigated for probably coordinating with a violent criminal to threaten the witness into a potentially fabricated testimony.
Good grief, does the general public not know about all this heinous stuff, or is it the classic apathy present everywhere?
The last two AfD supporters with whom I spoke didn't seem to be aware of all this (granted, I wasn't, excellent post there). They also prefer to believe that not all of AfD is that bad and focus on the people who they like.
If you're asking about non-AfD supporters ... just note that roughly half of Germany votes CDU or AfD. Many actually like the rightwing extremists for one "reason" or another. Because, not despite.
A lot of these topics are not tackled by the media, or there is only one uproar and then it is over. Consistently reporting on issues, holding politicians accountable to promises and reporting again if they fail to deliver arent done for these kind of issues.
But unfortunately it is also met with apathy in large parts of the population.
No idea where they got the 100,000 figure. There were several cities that had significantly more than that on their own. Munich had ~200,000 and Berlin had ~350,000 just to name two. Several cities were well into the tens of thousands too. The real number is more likely closer to a million people protesting throughout Germany this weekend. Additionally there were also protests during the week with tens of thousands of people joining.
It's mostly the difference between police reported numbers and the ones from organizers. For Hamburg the police number is 50k, while the organizers said 160k for example. That's why they wrote "more than 100k" everywhere. But I agree, that it's really lowballing the extent of the demonstrations.
Still, even if we take just police numbers, Then bremen (45k) and hamburg (50k, massive lowball) already reach pretty much 100k. if you take into account all the other 20k+ demonstrations happening, and the other really big ones like berlin and munich, this isnt just a conservative estimate, its outright dishonest
With all the current negative articles about the political and economic situation in Germany, I think it's also important to remember to share the positive ones. Although that's not to say there aren't worrisome things going on here.
There's another article from this morning here, it might give you a more complete picture of what's happening: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/21/germany-afd-party-deportation-masterplan-protests
There are more protests happening across the country today, the one in Berlin is at 4 pm at Brandenburger Tor. See you there.
There are protests all over Germany, Friday, Saturday and today. Everywhere.
See you there! We'll need the spirit. (And it will be fun with bands playing)
Okay, so I finally googled it. Theyre angry because the AFD is anti-Islamic terrorism, anti-EU and pro-German?
Man, I must be missing some translation here or maybe some context, because that all sounds like reasonable things.
Recently a group of journalists revealed that the AfD had a secret meeting with far-right extremist groups and neo-nazis where they made mass deportation plans for people with a migration background (even those born here with German nationality) which includes millions of people. That's what sparked the protests.
And the AfD is far more than anti islamic terrorism, they're hardcore islamophobic, antisemitic, queerphobic and ultranationalist. There's a reason one of their most prominent figures, Björn Höcke, is legally allowed to be called a fascist and a nazi.
The AfD is considered far right Nazis, did they have a meeting with themselves?
Im not seeing anything remotly anti-semitic on wikipedia, but I havent exactly put in the research time yet.
To be perfectly clear:
You acknowledge them as far right Nazis... and see nothing wrong with that?
The part either you or the sources you read are leaving out is that they are also anti-democratic and not just anti-Islamic terrorism but also anti-Islam. Or more precisely just generally racist.
You either read sources that fell for their bullshit downplaying self-description or you are actively trying to play down their harmful views yourself.
And skimmed right past the parts where it says they are also climate change deniers, pro-Russia, anti-Muslim, nationalistic, anti-LGBTQ, anti-feminist and this part
In early March 2021, most of Germany's major media outlets reported that the Bundesverfassungsschutz had placed the whole AfD under surveillance as a "suspected extremist group".
?
Maybe you should scroll a bit slower next time.
Yeah, probably. I should've put a little more time into it before commenting.
TBH, I have very little knowledge on Germany's political scene, I only ever really hear about AfD and how Germany's hate speech laws are abused. Also the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Kind of an irrelevant country at this point, they can't even meet their NATO obligations.
So your knowledge of Germany consists in large parts of some populist talking points and yet you jumped at the first opportunity to defend an extremely right-wing party and downplay their policies. That's... a choice.
Nah, the AfD keeps coming up, I figured I should be somewhat informed. When I got confused, I asked a question.
And being real, lemmy is rad left. When I hear Nazi, I think "Ah, someone disagreed with an asshole", and I don't think "Hitler".
how Germany’s hate speech laws are abused
What the hell are you talking about?
they can’t even meet their NATO obligations
2% of the gdp on defense, perhaps?
That was agreed on for this year, which has only just begun!
Let's wait another year at least, when this year's numbers are published, ok?
I have very little knowledge on Germany’s political scene
That's more than obvious.
Maybe you belief German Jews than:
The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster expresses deep concern about the AfD’s high poll numbers.
“The right-wing extremist party currently has nationwide support that I would not have imagined even in my nightmares, and this causes me serious concern,” said Schuster in an interview with Web.de.News.
The AfD is ‘largely nationalist, racist, and ethnically exclusive,’ and it ‘clearly also embodies Nazi ideals,’ added the Central Council President. ‘If a party like the AfD were ever to be part of a federal government, one would have to seriously consider whether Jewish life is still possible in Germany.’
Schuster recalled that Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and President of the Munich Jewish Community, said in 2006 that the Jews in Germany had finally unpacked their bags.
‘That statement was absolutely accurate at the time,’ he said. ‘Today, one or two people are already looking in the attic where they stowed the empty suitcase, so they can have it ready to hand again.”
Stop making broad claims just because you read one article on Wikipedia.
Do you really belief such protests on an unprecedented scale are happening all over Germany (my country) because the AfD doesn't like terrorists?
Yeah, probably. I should’ve put a little more time into it before commenting.
TBH, I have very little knowledge on Germany’s political scene, I only ever really hear about AfD and how Germany’s hate speech laws are abused. Also the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
I'm basing my judgement off of some Americans protesting for Hamas, thinking that protestors are sometimes really stupid.
and how Germany’s hate speech laws are abused.
And the next lie ... Really, either stop posting or check your sources. That's (far-right) bullshit.
Im basing my judgement off of some Americans protesting for Hamas
Germany is not the USA. That some Americans are protesting for Hamas has nothing to do with Germany.
Edit:
BTW, in Bremen 40,000 protested today. In Cologne another 70,000 protested. In Munich the protest had to be stopped after after more than 100.0000 (conservative estimate) people came together before the protest even started. And that are only some cities where protests are happening today. There are (peaceful) protests every day all over Germany and protests continue.
Germany is not the USA.
Humans are human. There are dumb people everywhere, I'm one of them sometimes. Get a few of them together, get a circlejerk going, you can get protests for absurd things.
They literally want to deport non ethnic citizens. Also, anti-EU and pro-Germany is an oxymoron. Germany is one of the biggest economic profiteers of the European Union and shared currency.
It's almost literally a reenactment by the AFD of what happened around the 1930s. It's so fucked up.
But this is 2024 , so people should be more aware, and are protesting massively. Unfortunately, the resurgence of (forms of) fascism is a worldwide trend, and not an isolated phenomena.
Add: many people seem to be calling Fascistist "Nazis" nowadays. That's so confusing to me, as if they don't know that Nazism is a particular form of Fascism. While Fascism in all its varieties and guises should be the true denominator for trouble, and is the enemy of democracy.
Add: many people seem to be calling Fascistist “Nazis” nowadays. That’s so confusing to me, as if they don’t know that Nazism is a particular form of Fascism. While Fascism in all its varieties and guises should be the true denominator for trouble, and is the enemy of democracy.
The AfD has been taken over by literal Neo-Nazis that see themselves in the tradition of the NSDAP though, calling them that is correct.
The AfD has been taken over by literal Neo-Nazis that see themselves in the tradition of the NSDAP though, calling them that is correct.
For sure, they have been taken over by Neo Nazis.
But they aren't the only ones being called Nazis nowadays. For example, the other day someone called Nentanyahu ( Israel) a "Nazi" .
That's just confusing, considering what happened in WW2. If they'd brand him Fascist, it would be more correct .
It's about the extreme violent racism of the Fascism in Israel.
At least in Europe, none of the variants of Fascism other than Nazisim ever engaged in the kind of widespread massacre of civilians from another etnic group whilst talking about them as untermenschen that you see being done in Israel (which before all this was already deeply racist about Palestinians and Arabs in general, but now went full-on Genocidal).
Whilst Netanyahu and his government haven't gotten quite to the level of the original Nazis yet, they use similar propaganda techniques, display extreme racism towards Palestinians (calling them "human animals", saying that "Palestinians are violent" - not Hamas, Palestinians - frequently claiming to want to expel or eliminate them and even suggesting nuking Gaza) and have already exceeded all other variants of Fascism in their violence in general and certainly in violence very specifically against civilians of another etnic group.
Saying Nazi instead of fascist is a distinction without a difference. All Nazis are fascist, but not all fascists are Nazis. Most people don't even know fascism originated in Italy or got the name from the fasces Roman lictors carried while escorting senators and dictators. I think it's ok if people are only able to recognize fascism as Nazism, because it all gets to the same idea, they are bad organizations that want to rule you and take away rights.
Meanwhile, the AfD is trying to cast doubt on the number of people protesting with targeted disinformation via social media. Pathetic.
And also, it's just not that they only want deportation, they also wanna lower minimum wage - less rights for workers and so on. Nobody with a brain should vote them or simmilar party's in europe
Whenever countries elect any right wingers and then bad things get proposed or enacted https://youtu.be/WetFtbVhW5w?si=t69-8IOgZHmV64S5
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Protests were also held in cities including Braunschweig, Erfurt and Kassel and many smaller towns, mirroring mobilisation every day over the past week.
The protests began after it emerged AfD party members had attended meetings with neo-Nazis and other extremists to discuss the mass deportation of migrants, asylum seekers and German citizens of foreign origin deemed to have failed to integrate.
The anti-immigration party confirmed the presence of its members at the meeting, but has denied taking on the “remigration” project championed by Sellner.
Leading politicians including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined a demonstration last weekend, said any plan to expel immigrants or citizens alike amounted to “an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us”.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the opposition conservative CDU party, wrote online that it was “very encouraging that thousands of people are demonstrating peacefully against rightwing extremism”.
Formed in 2013 as an anti-establishment, anti-euro force by academics and economists, the AfD has quickly morphed into an anti-immigrant party, ditching its original founders.
The original article contains 532 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
The article creates the impression, this is about the AfD, a far-right party that is gaining seats in parliaments nation-wide, but it's not. The recent 'scandal' is actually about non-AfD politicians conspiring with far-right movements.
Yes, it's a loud and colorful movement against neo-fascism, but this is also clear statement to the ruling parties not to give in to pressure from the right. And it's definitely against people who are moderate on the surface and brown behind the scenes.
This is about the majority to unite and stands against the Nazis. This is about us. You don't change a Nazi by shouting at their house. you change a bystander by encouraging them to join the march.
AfD members were part of the secret meeting and other members previously voiced similar plans, or even going as far as to wanting to shoot or gas immigrants.
They are currently and consistently strong in the polls for the federal elections, where they come in second at 25% and in many state elections that are going to happen this year they are by far the strongest in the polls.
Also together with the EU parliament elections there will be muncipal elections in many states, where also the AfD could get a "landslide" and be strong enough to dominate budget and planning decisions. They are already cooperationg with the former conservative, now right populist and in somer areas far right CDU, whose members also participated in the deportation plan meeting, on a local level. They made decisions like cutting funding to organizations that help victims of racist violence, cutting funding for theatres and cultural groups that were welcoming to refugees and limiting the ressources for sheltering refugees.
Ah yes, protests! Famously capable of stopping evil people in their tracks. That's why ww2 is a fictional tale!
Good job, you burned that strawman to the ground e a s i l y.
Seriously though, no one believes this would solve everything. And it can still be one thing worth doing for other, smaller reasons.
But since you still have a very obvious point, why don't you skip to the interesting part; how to do better? What's your approach?
Nothing I could possibly say could alter the course of moronic humanity. You cannot even accept an obvious statement of fact without dejection and snark.
Humanity is too stupid to change its fate, and I am not above saying I told you so; at least I recognize saying it changes nothing just like protests change nothing.
Ah yes, the right way to fight fascism is to complain, that the world is shit and do nothing about it. That's the spirit.
There are a lot of people, that fight against fascism daily, who are active in their communities and strive for a better world. The hopes of these people got crushed by the constant negative press and the climb of the right wing in election surveys. Now they see, that they have indeed a backing in the general population. Furthermore it was a huge AfD talking point, that they speak for the silent majority, which is why they attack the protests now by calling them fake or that the protestors were paid by the government.
I understand the idea of galvanizing. Maybe you should grow a brain and realize I want what comes AFTER the galvanizing, not calling to go back to The Before Times™. I want people MORE pissed off and ready to actually DO something.
It doesn't stop evil people, but before these protests I thought this country was slowly drifting into the far right, like so many other European countries. Now I know that a million people are willing to go on he streets. Hell, even in my right wing city in Saxony ten thousand people went to the protests, this time not because of an anti fascist concert like last time.
Yes, I do think this can fight against fascists. We can start talking about what to do against them and why people feel the need to vote for the AfD and their likes, collectively.
Or we can just stay miserable like you
Thank you. I had this in mind as a reason, or maybe more as a hope.
before these protests I thought this country was slowly drifting into the far right, like so many other European countries. Now I know that a million people are willing to go on he streets. Hell, even in my right wing city in Saxony ten thousand people went to the protests
This is uplifting news! Thanks for sharing.
Ahh yes, that concert sure slowed them down.
They already know they're a minority. Why are you assuming you are not a majority against them?
Everyone has such fucking pathetic responses to people who LITERALLY WANT TO KILL YOU if you're not "normal". You should already know those troglodytes are a minority.
It's not the troglodytes, it's not Sellner and Höcke and all the other nazis that are the problem. It's these idiots who literally, LITERALLY, I've spoken to colleagues like that here in Chemnitz TODAY, think that these guys are overly demonized, that not everything the AfD is all right but maybe you can take some campaign points of them because they aren't so unreasonable, that LITERALLY segway the conversation about the protests into how you can't even call it Zigeuner Schnitzel anymore and that those protesters would have been fuming if they saw the menu of restaurant they were on that weekend. I guarantee you, they don't know what these people were protesting against, but are so angry at the government that they ignore anything that would suggest that they are wrong and give in to their bigotry
I just want to know that there are more people that would go on the streets against the fascists than those blind sheep.
The complacency of the ignorant is part of the exact problem I'm pointing at.
Why do you think so many are lazy about activism? Is it because they think protests are actual work? Complacency after making vapid statements that don't actually even slow down the bad people is also bad.
Normies are lazy because they think this virtue signaling shit is more effective than it is.