Germans Hit Streets Against Deals With Far Right
ERFURT, Germany (Dispatches) - Thousands of anti-fascist protesters have taken to the streets in Erfurt, capital of Thuringia state in Germany’s former communist east where far-right lawmakers last week helped install a new state premier.
"Not with us! No pacts with fascists any time or anywhere!” is the motto for the protest, organized by the DGB trade union federation, NGOs, artists and politicians belonging to the "Unteilbar” (indivisible) movement
Organizers said 18,000 people, including artists, trade unionists, NGO workers and policians took part in the demonstration.
The protesters carried banners with slogans including "We don’t want a Fourth Reich” or "We don’t want power at any price” and chanted "no deal with the fascists”.
Thuringia rocked national politics on February 5, when state lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU party voted with far-right, anti-immigrant AfD representatives to elect liberal politician Thomas Kemmerich state premier.
"I’m demonstrating because the AfD is gaining a lot of influence in the eastern regions,” said Maria Reuter, a 74-year old Erfurt resident.
"A red line was crossed when the right and far-right combined their votes,” she said, adding: "This cannot stand”.
The Erfurt gathering was the latest of many protests that broke out spontaneously across Germany in response to the controversial electoral pact, and which have been targeted especially against the CDU and Kemmerich’s Free Democrats (FDP).
Barely 24 hours after accepting the vote, Kemmerich agreed to step down.
But outrage at the centrist parties accepting help from the far right, a first since the founding of the Federal Republic in 1949, remains deep-seated among the protest organizers.
"Not with us! No pacts with fascists any time or anywhere!” is the motto for the protest, organized by the DGB trade union federation, NGOs, artists and politicians belonging to the "Unteilbar” (indivisible) movement
Organizers said 18,000 people, including artists, trade unionists, NGO workers and policians took part in the demonstration.
The protesters carried banners with slogans including "We don’t want a Fourth Reich” or "We don’t want power at any price” and chanted "no deal with the fascists”.
Thuringia rocked national politics on February 5, when state lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU party voted with far-right, anti-immigrant AfD representatives to elect liberal politician Thomas Kemmerich state premier.
"I’m demonstrating because the AfD is gaining a lot of influence in the eastern regions,” said Maria Reuter, a 74-year old Erfurt resident.
"A red line was crossed when the right and far-right combined their votes,” she said, adding: "This cannot stand”.
The Erfurt gathering was the latest of many protests that broke out spontaneously across Germany in response to the controversial electoral pact, and which have been targeted especially against the CDU and Kemmerich’s Free Democrats (FDP).
Barely 24 hours after accepting the vote, Kemmerich agreed to step down.
But outrage at the centrist parties accepting help from the far right, a first since the founding of the Federal Republic in 1949, remains deep-seated among the protest organizers.