Rising up Against the Right

You may have read about the demonstrations in many places all over Germany, with tens of thousands of people against the Right - incarnated by the AFD.

Michael Wehner, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Political Education in Freiburg, commented, "The Potsdam meeting with the tenor of remigration had an air of conspiracy - the enemies of democracy gathered there - and on top of that there is the super election year 2024 with approval ratings for the AfD soaring. That makes many people want to show their colors."

Last Saturday, Red Baron, together with other citizens of Freiburg, went to the large-scale event "We are the firewall against the right" on Platz der alten Synagoge (Old Synagogue Square) to set a mark against right-wing extremism.

  

The Old Synagogue Square filled slowly but surely.

Human rights instead of right-wing humans (©BZ/Barbara Ruda)

Gorgeous weather

A drone photo (©BZ/Annika Vogelbacher)

With 30,000 participants, it was probably the largest demonstration in Freiburg since the end of the Second World War. There were individuals, but the rally was also supported by more than 500 organizations of various "colors."

Many people at the demonstration realized that demonstrating is a democratic right worth protecting. So strange alliances formed between supporters of various parties such as the CDU, SPD, FDP, and Greens, climate activists such as Fridays for Future, and political organizations like Antifa.

One banner read, "Voting AfD is like 1933". Indeed, at a Bürgerstammtisch (citizens table) in Potsdam (again!) on January 18, Lars Hünich, AfD member of the Brandenburg state parliament, declared, "If we are in government tomorrow, then we must abolish this party-state".

The demand to abolish the party system is a clear attack on the free democratic rule because our Grundgesetz (Basic Law, i.e., constitution) protects parties as part of the people's decision-making process.

The abolishing of the party-state was put into practice in the Weimar Republic on March 24, 1933, with the Nazis' Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act).

Given the diversity of the demonstrators, how long will such an "alliance of convenience" last?

Michael Wehner believes that it might well happen that some people say the protests went too far while others say they didn't go far enough.

There were a conspicuous number of young people at the demonstration. There was rapping about gays and lesbians on stage. The piercing loudspeaker transmission may have irritated some older participants.

Red Baron was okay with the colorful diversity.

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