“Against hate speech and violence”: 10,000 individuals reveal in opposition to AfD in Cologne | EUROtoday

As of 9:31 p.m | Reading time: 2 minutes

MMore than 10,000 individuals demonstrated in opposition to the AfD in Cologne on Tuesday night. The crowd was massive, the facet streets to the Heumarkt rally website have been overcrowded. The space was “completely at capacity,” mentioned a police spokesman.

The motto of the rally in Cologne’s outdated city was “Demonstration against the AfD & Co.’s mass deportation plans and increasing racist agitation and violence from the right”. There was dwell music and members waved EU and rainbow flags.

A “Spontaneous Alliance Against Racism” and the “Cologne Against the Right” alliance referred to as for the demo. The latter contains, amongst others, the Left Youth Cologne and the left-wing extremist group “Interventionist Left”, which is monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The demonstrators’ posters contained slogans equivalent to “We are colorful! We are more!”, “AfD – pioneers of fascism” and “Nazis secretly eat kebabs”. There have been calls to contemplate banning the get together. The members additionally emphasised that democracy is resilient.

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The purpose for the demo was the not too long ago introduced assembly of right-wing extremists and AfD representatives in a villa in Potsdam. The former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, mentioned he spoke about “remigration” final November. Right-wing extremists normally imply that numerous individuals of overseas origin ought to go away the nation – even below duress. According to the media firm Correctiv, Sellner named three teams: asylum seekers, foreigners with the suitable to stay and “unassimilated citizens”.

In response to this, there have been already a number of demonstrations nationwide over the weekend. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) attended a rally in Potsdam. At the beginning of the week there was a demo in Essen on Monday night with 6,700 members.