Since early 2024, the German far-right and its political vanguard, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), have been pushed back by an unexpectedly large-scale grassroots movement. Since mid-January, millions of Germans have taken to the streets every weekend to peacefully condemn the AfD’s xenophobic rhetoric and anti-democratic agenda. Although the pace is slow, the movement is still going strong.
The trigger for this explosion was the infamous “Potsdam Conference” story. What was revealed through the investigation platform on January 10th correction, held near Berlin in November 2023, this secret meeting brought together people who claimed to not know each other. These included members of the conservative CDU party, AfD lawmakers and leaders, descendants of the von Bismarck family, a few wealthy individuals, neo-Nazis and identity activists. The keynote speaker at the conference was Martin Sellner, leader of the Austrian identity movement. He laid out details of a “migration” plan involving the mass deportation of two million foreigners from Germany to North Africa. Deportations of “misassimilated” German citizens were also expected.
“The fantasy of ‘migration’ has been around for some time,” said Lorenz Blumenthaler, researcher and spokesperson for the Antonio Amadeu Foundation (AAS), a German NGO that focuses on extremism and racism. He points out: “It is well-known among extreme right-wing researchers, but has not received much attention until now. So I was surprised by the strong response from the public.” The revelations of high-level political conspiracy appear to have been shocking, as did the conspiratorial feel of the actual meeting where such specific and unconstitutional plans were presented.
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“I have known for a long time that some of the AfD leaders make racist comments mixed with Nazi references,” said Wiebke Brenner, a local protester I met in Berlin on February 3. “And then it was really scary to suddenly realize that they were meeting people with significant financial resources to discuss plans for the mass deportation of foreigners. That was the last straw.”
The protests appear to have halted the AfD’s rise by providing a noisy response to the AfD’s inflammatory claims that Germany is on the brink of economic ruin and cultural collapse. In every national voting intention survey since February, the party has stalled, falling from a high of 24% to a range of 16-19%. The decline was also noticeable in the AfD’s eastern heartlands, including Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. But the AfD still maintains around 30%.
“The first lesson is that you can mobilize a lot of people in a short period of time,” says Blumenthaler. “This was the largest protest since the climate protests. And the scale of mobilization was so widespread that it attracted many older people who had never before taken to the streets to protest the far right. Eventually, rallies were held everywhere, including in small towns across the country. “The east is where the extreme right is strong and courage is needed to confront it.”
The role of the main organizers, climate movement Friday for Future and NGO Campact, was central. The scale of the protests was made possible by our adeptness with social media, our national connections, and our ability to quickly contact local actors. Pit Terjung, one of the spokespeople, added: “They also showed activists that years of hard work in the field were not in vain, and they showed non-activists how effective such dedication can be.” All groups, from the Antonio Amadeu Foundation to “Grandmothers Against the Far Right,” talk about a growing enthusiasm for activism.
“The movement has formed alliances and activated various democratic mechanisms,” added Lorenz Blumenthaler. For example, German employers, who usually do not take sides, together with the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB) issued a joint appeal against immigration. The churches took a clear stance against the AfD. The media has paid more attention to the workings and goals of the far-right constellation. The AfD’s dominance on social networks, particularly Tik Tok, has come under close scrutiny. In particular, attention was focused on the AfD branch in Thuringia, which is expected to take first place in the local elections in September. It thus emerged that the party plans to use constitutional and political means to turn Thuringia into a far-right laboratory.
Now, three months later, the number and frequency of protests have decreased dramatically. The number of protestors that used to be hundreds of thousands every weekend now numbers only tens of thousands. Lorenz Blumenthaler says this is not surprising. “To go beyond simple protests, you need a shared narrative to mobilize people. That’s not there. Although the traditional political parties have all welcomed and supported this movement, they did not and did not start it. They have contributed a lot.”
Facing elections for the European Parliament and regional elections in three eastern states, the social democratic SPD and, above all, the conservative CDU are struggling to chart a future alliance against the far right. It is difficult to come up with a clear position that draws a boundary line without rejecting extreme right-wing protest voters.
At the very least, the protests have reignited debate about monitoring a political party in several parts of Germany that German intelligence has classified as an extremist group. There is now greater perspective on the process of banning the party. Germany’s constitution stipulates that if there are “substantial signs” that a political party intends to “attack and eliminate the liberal and democratic constitutional order.”
