Shortly after the Vice President of the United States made a controversial call to German parties not to isolate Alternative for Germany (AfD), a demonstration in Berlin gathered about 30,000 people according to the police and 38,000 according to the organizers. The mobilization took place a week before the legislative elections and seemed to show a decrease in opposition against AfD.
In Berlin, protesters expressed their concern over polls indicating that AfD could become the second most voted party in Germany after the legislative elections on February 23. Several tens of thousands of people gathered in the German capital in favor of democracy and against the possibility of the far-right coming to power.
Polls suggest that AfD could obtain between 20-21% of the votes, behind the conservative opposition with an estimated 30-32%, and ahead of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which stands around 15%. The fact that the conservatives are considering possible cooperation with AfD has sparked protests.
During the demonstration in Berlin, prominent speakers such as Rabbi Andreas Nachama and Protestant Bishop Christian Stäblein spoke out against anti-Semitism and racism. A minute of silence was observed in memory of a mother and her daughter who passed away in a car attack in Munich.
On Sunday, under the slogan "Hand in hand, we are the firebreaks," the event gathered a crowd at Bebelplatz and Unter den Linden Avenue in central Berlin. This demonstration adds to previous ones in Munich and Berlin aimed at rejecting any cooperation with the far-right, maintaining the "sanitary cordon" established by traditional parties since World War II.
