Be a part of the firewall in opposition to the AfD | EUROtoday

Politik is an organization the place it occurs that an 82-year-old lady joins the Green Party as a result of Friedrich Merz stated one thing about demonstrations in opposition to right-wing extremism. To perceive that, you need to discuss to this lady, who doesn't say something about Friedrich Merz, however remembers 60 years in the past. At that point, Hannelore Freudenberg was occupied with Hitler's Mein Kampf and browse concerning the clumsily introduced horrible deeds that a lot of her late Weimar contemporaries didn’t wish to imagine would come true.

But within the basic upswing of the Federal Republic, Hannelore Freudenberg put apart the concern of a return of the Nazis and lived a life that “got better and better,” as she says on the cellphone. She voted for the Christian Democrats, she voted for the Social Democrats. She remembers powerful political struggles, about rearmament, about nuclear energy, about reunification. “We were able to live with all the decisions very well,” says Hannelore Freudenberg.

But she hasn't forgotten what she learn in Hitler's e book or that he got here to energy by means of democratic means. Freudenberg fears that right-wing extremism and nationalism might result in warfare once more at the moment. “The AfD is a huge danger,” she says. “It’s time for the 70 and 80 year olds who have been doing well for so long to show their faces.”

When the primary “demonstration against the right” was introduced in Kassel, the place Freudenberg lives, in mid-January, she didn’t wish to be late. She was at Friedrichsplatz so early that there was hardly anybody in sight. “But then the place filled up, you can’t imagine that,” enthuses Freudenberg. 15,000 folks got here regardless that there was nonetheless snow on the bottom, though for a very long time related demonstrations had hardly attracted anybody to the streets. The Indivisible alliance, which needed to mobilize in opposition to racism with human chains, had even dissolved.

But now many individuals had come, not solely in Kassel, but additionally in Demmin and Döbeln. In many locations these had been the biggest demonstrations in a very long time. Often even in any respect. In Hamburg alone, 180,000 folks had been on the streets in at some point.

The AfD fumed, Björn Höcke spoke of “ordered masses”. Politicians from different events praised the protests – and a few, like CDU chief Merz, prompt that demonstrations might solely be step one for everybody who’s critical about democracy. On the way in which again from the demonstration, Hannelore Freudenberg remembered Merz's attraction, silently agreed with him and submitted her membership utility to the Green Party.

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Nobody is aware of but what number of did the identical. The events don’t systematically ask why somebody enters. But there’s proof that the demonstrations motivated many to take the step. At the start of the 12 months there have been extra entries than within the earlier 12 months, in accordance with the CDU. And the CSU additionally reviews that the variety of admissions “increased noticeably” in January 2024. While the FDP asks on your understanding that they don’t wish to present details about their very own membership standing till the flip of the 12 months, the Greens communicate of “by far the strongest start to the year”. The SPD says that at instances round 3 times as many individuals have develop into comrades as traditional. A spokesman for the get together says that for the complete first quarter it’s obvious that the variety of folks becoming a member of is round twice as excessive as traditional.