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Key Points
- Around 160,000 gathered in Berlin to protest far-right influence ahead of the German national election.
- It comes after the conservative party sought support from the far-right AfD for a draft immigration bill.
- Germany’s national election is set for 23 February, with the conservatives leading in polls.
Senior Social Democrat (SPD) legislator Rolf Muetzenich warned Merz during pre-vote debate against any backing from AfD: “It’s not too late. This sin will forever be with you but the door to hell, yes, I am saying the door to hell we can still close together. You must put the firewall up again, put up the firewall again.”
There were also mass protests on Saturday in other German cities, including Hamburg, Stuttgart and Leipzig.
Protesters attend a rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Source: EPA / Hannibal Hanschke
Germany has two centrist, “big-tent” parties: the ruling centre-left Social Democrats and the opposition conservatives, an alliance of the Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, with 16 per cent, has dropped to third from the first place it achieved in the 2021 election.
