"Monday demo" in Leipzig: Left starts "hot autumn" - right next to right-wing extremists?
Created: 09/05/2022, 14:36
A left-wing demonstration against the government's energy and social policies will take place on Monday evening.
In addition, protests from right-wing groups are expected.
Munich/Leipzig - Inflation and rising gas prices are a major concern for many people in Germany.
The traffic light coalition only presented the third relief package on Sunday and was sometimes harshly criticized by the opposition and the federal states.
Protests on the streets could also follow on Monday (September 5th): The left had announced a demonstration in Leipzig for Monday evening days ago.
The plans are explosive in several respects.
Because right-wing to right-wing extremist groups will be demonstrating at the same time.
The term "Monday Demo" also met with criticism.
Monday demonstration in Leipzig: The Left and Free Saxony demonstrate in parallel
Either way, the left now wants to launch its “hot autumn” against the government's energy and social policies.
"Energy prices and inflation are a threat to democracy in our country," said the left-wing faction's commissioner for the East, Sören Pellmann, of the German Press Agency (dpa).
Pellmann has registered a demonstration with up to 4,000 people for the evening in Leipzig.
At the same time, the extreme right-wing Freie Sachsen and other right-wing and left-wing groups also want to protest.
The Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) indicated understanding for the protests.
"On the one hand, I can understand that many people are currently dissatisfied with the federal government's energy policy," said the CSU politician of the Funke media group.
However, he considers it questionable "that the 'SED heirs' are now trying to adopt the symbolism of the Monday demonstrations and adopt this term for themselves."
Left MP Sören Pellmann has registered a demonstration with up to 4,000 people in Leipzig.
© Jan Woitas/dpa
Pellmann had spoken of "Monday demonstrations" - a term used in the peaceful revolution in the GDR in 1989. This was directed against the state party SED, from which the PDS and finally the Left Party later emerged.
Right-wing groups are now also using the term Monday demonstration.
The left keeps its distance from them, at least verbally.
Pellmann told the dpa that the left "can't take weekdays away from the right".
Its task is to steer protest into democratic channels and to channel political dissatisfaction.
Monday demo in Leipzig - "Hot Autumn" with right and left groups
The demarcation is not only difficult because right-wingers are trying to get involved in the left-wing protest campaign.
Some slogans from the right and left are also similar.
In his appeal, Pellmann called for a "hot autumn against social cold".
The right-wing AfD advertises with the motto "Hot autumn instead of cold feet!", supplemented by the slogan "Our country first!"
The argumentation patterns of individual politicians from both camps also show parallels.
AfD boss Tino Chrupalla speaks of an "economic war" by the federal government against Russia, he wants to lift sanctions against Moscow and put the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which the federal government has stopped, into operation.
The top left is explicitly against Nord Stream 2 and for certain sanctions against Russia.
But the former Left Party leader Sahra Wagenknecht also speaks of an "economic war" by the federal government against Moscow.
Former party leader Klaus Ernst calls the energy sanctions against Russia a serious mistake and also advocates using Nord Stream 2 after all.
Demo in Leipzig - "Monday demo" is a controversial term
Movement researcher Alexander Leistner describes the fact that the left-wing demonstration is taking place on a Monday as “not a good idea”.
"Monday has been occupied by right-wing actors for years," said Leistner in an interview with the
taz
.
Right-wing groups could dominate the protests against energy policy, especially in smaller eastern German cities.
Since 1990 there has been "a right-wing hegemony on the street," says Leistner.
This was also shown by Pegida and the lateral thinking demos.
It remains questionable whether the social protests can differentiate themselves from the right, said Leistner.
Monday demonstration in Saxony-Anhalt in January 2022. © Steffen schellhorn/IMAGO
As early as 2004 there were Monday demonstrations against the Hartz IV reforms.
At that time there were around 200,000 people on the streets.
They are considered the largest social protests in Germany.
On this occasion, too, demonstrations in some East German cities were taken over by right-wing extremists, as Leistner explained.
Confrontations between left and right possible
The official demands of the left for their nationwide protest campaign this fall are: “Relieve people.
cap prices.
tax excess profits”.
Party leader Martin Schirdewan, former parliamentary group leader Gregor Gysi and current parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali want to come to the opening demonstration in Leipzig on Monday evening.
"We must not give up our streets and squares to the right-wingers," said Gysi in advance.
It needs the pressure of the street.
In the debate about the choice of term, Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke) appealed for restraint in the choice of words.
His party must "set itself apart because the concept of rights is exploited for any form of protest," he said in an interview with
t-online
.
The Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution does not rule out confrontations between the various political camps at the Leipzig demonstrations on Monday.
The situation is confusing in terms of ideological classification, said the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Dirk-Martin Christian.
(vk/dpa)
