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Juan Carlos Barrena
Domingo, 2 de febrero 2025, 19:15
More than 160,000 people, according to police figures, gathered in the heart of Berlin this Sunday to protest against the conservatives of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), as well as their leader and federal chancellor candidate, Friedrich Merz, for seeking parliamentary support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) twice this week. Organisers estimated the march's attendance at over 250,000 people.
Tens of thousands more joined similar demonstrations in cities such as Bonn, Stuttgart, Regensburg, and Essen, among other German cities. In Hamburg, where 65,000 people gathered on Saturday, tens of thousands reconvened to condemn any flirtation with AfD. Under the slogan "The Rebellion of the Decent – Protest in Favour of the Firewall", demonstrators marched in the German capital from the government district to the Konrad Adenauer Haus, the CDU's national headquarters.
The large turnout forced German police to close the Bundestag metro station, the federal parliament, due to overcrowding. The asphalt was not visible on the 2-kilometre stretch of the 13th June Avenue from the Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column, as well as on the street from that monument to the CDU headquarters. In the opening speech of the protest, publicist Michel Friedman, who left the CDU a few days ago after more than 40 years of membership, recalled the constitutional promise that the dignity of every human being is inviolable.
Former member of the Christian Democratic executive and former vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Friedman described AfD as a "party of hate" and an "inexcusable mistake" for conservatives to vote alongside the far-right on Wednesday for stricter migration policies. "One cannot make common cause with those who trample on human dignity," said Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, former president of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany. High-ranking representatives of the Catholic Church, trade unions, and numerous civil organisations also joined the demonstrations called to reject any rapprochement with the far-right.
More than 350 ships and boats joined an event that blocked the Rhine River at the height of the city of Cologne with banners and texts such as "no to racism" or "for democracy and diversity", while thousands of people gathered around the city's cathedral. Würzburg, Ulm, and Kiel, among many others, were also localities where tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets to condemn the conservatives' approach to the far-right. "Human rights instead of right-wing people" or "never again is now" were texts that could be read on some of their banners.
Amid the protests against his party and himself, Friedrich Merz called for peaceful behaviour in the demonstrations against the CDU. "I urge all those who are now protesting to do so peacefully," the conservative chancellor candidate urged during a visit to the "City Cube" at the Berlin Fair, where the Christian Democrats will hold an electoral congress this Monday, which is expected to be accompanied by loud citizen protests. Merz said he hoped for a renunciation of all forms of violence by the demonstrators, after several of his party's headquarters were attacked in recent days.
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