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Protest rally of "lateral thinking" in May: "Rights and conspiracy-theoretical slogans are widely shared"
Photo: Christoph Schmidt / DPA
SPIEGEL:
Ms. Daphi, from the point of view of a protest and conflict researcher: How was 2020?
Daphi
: A very exciting one.
Various conflicts have become very clearly visible.
In Germany there was a lot of discussion about the so-called hygiene demonstrations, about the occurrence of such groups as lateral thinking.
What is particularly remarkable about these protests are their broad coalitions and the low reluctance of many to take to the streets with right-wing and anti-democratic groups.
At the same time, there were also major protest movements such as the Fridays for Future protests in previous years.
One overlooks this quickly with the new developments.
In 2020, completely different protest topics experienced an upswing in other countries.
In Minsk, for example, there are currently demonstrations against the government.
SPIEGEL:
Are people currently more thin-skinned because of Corona - and are they therefore more ready to take their anger out onto the street?
Daphi:
That assumes that protests express
thinness
.
Often, however, the opposite is the case: protests are strategically thought out and often planned for a long time.
Protests have become a very common means of getting one's interests heard over the decades.
You have almost normalized yourself.
You can also see this in the fact that even established political actors such as parties use this format and initiate social movements - one example is the La République en Marche party founded by Emmanuel Macron.
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