"Never again a square"

Scholz praises demonstrations against right-wing extremism

(Bild: APA/AFP/STEFANIE LOOS)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has thanked the participants in the ongoing demonstrations against right-wing extremism and for democracy. It is good "that so many are taking part in the rallies", he said on Monday.

"If something must never again have a place in our country, then it is völkisch, racist ideology," he said after a meeting with people with foreign roots and representatives of migrant associations. Almost one in four people in Germany already had a history of immigration. "Germany is our common home." However, many people are now worried because they feel targeted when right-wing extremists spread their inhumane ideas about resettlement.

480,000 people at demonstrations at the weekend
According to the German Ministry of the Interior, more than 480,000 people took part in demonstrations across Germany last weekend alone (see video above). The wave of protests against the right has been going on for more than three weeks. It was triggered by an investigation by the media outlet Correctiv into a meeting between radical right-wingers and individual politicians from the AfD, CDU and Werteunion in Potsdam in November.

Demonstration against right-wing extremism in Hamburg (archive photo)(Bild: APA/dpa/Jonas Walzberg)

The former head of the far-right Identitarian movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, spoke there about the concept of so-called remigration. By this, right-wing extremists usually mean that a large number of people of foreign origin should leave the country, even under duress.

Associations banned, laws tightened
The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has now banned associations and tightened laws. The planned Democracy Promotion Act is now to be passed swiftly in the Bundestag. This will provide longer-term state funding for associations and organizations that promote democracy.