Tens of thousands march across Germany to protest far-right party AfD

What the report says

Tens of thousands of people marched in cities across Germany on Saturday to protest the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), according to Al Jazeera. The demonstrations were reported in about 20 locations, including Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, with organizers and police giving different turnout estimates. Protesters carried placards calling for the party to be banned and warning against the spread of anti-democratic politics.

The rallies were organized by campaign groups including Pruef, which is pressing for a legal ban on the AfD, and Campact. In Berlin, the AfD held a counter-rally, attended by Kristin Brinker, the party’s lead candidate for the capital’s upcoming regional election. The protests came shortly after the AfD won a major result in Saxony-Anhalt, an eastern German state, taking nearly 44 percent of the vote on September 6, far ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union.

Al Jazeera reported that the result left the AfD close to a governing majority in the state and in talks with other parties, which would mark a major step for the party. Mainstream German parties still maintain a long-standing refusal to govern with the AfD, often described as a political “firewall.” The party’s rise has sharpened concern in Germany because of the country’s historical memory and the broader debate over whether the party should be outlawed, a move that would face significant legal hurdles.