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Andy Grote (SPD), Senator for the Interior and Sport in Hamburg, speaks during the meeting of the Hamburg Citizens' Council in the town hall.
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
Across Germany, hundreds of thousands are taking to the streets to demonstrate for democracy and human rights.
The commitment is welcomed by the Hamburg citizens - but not by everyone.
Hamburg - With the exception of the AfD, all parties represented in the Hamburg parliament have recognized the demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of people across Germany against the right as a strong sign for democracy and human rights.
“We have never had such a broad alliance on the streets here before,” said Interior Senator Andy Grote in a current hour on Wednesday.
Like the SPD politician, the Greens, CDU, Left and FDP also viewed the demonstrations as evidence of the great concern that had arisen among the entire population when the secret meeting between right-wing extremists and AfD officials in Potsdam became known.
AfD representatives, on the other hand, spoke of a “smear campaign” against their party, which was based on untrue reporting about the meeting and which was being taken over by the “former democratic parties without reflection,” as their parliamentary director Krzysztof Walczak said.
“No decent democrat” should take part in demonstrations called for by a government.
AfD parliamentary group leader Dirk Nockemann accused the SPD and the Greens of leading staged demonstrations.
A report by the Correctiv research center about a meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam on November 25th with some AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union had led to numerous demonstrations against right-wing extremism across the country in recent weeks.
According to participants, it was about the concept of so-called remigration.
When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country - even under duress.
Hamburg is a diverse urban society, said Grote to the AfD.
“And that doesn’t change: you don’t sort us according to ethnicity, origin or religion.”
He recalled that the AfD had forced the relocation of a demonstration against the right that had originally been planned for Hamburg's town hall market by means of a ban zone rule by convening a parliamentary group meeting in the town hall at short notice.
“Of course, people then ask themselves, if a party manages to keep an unpopular meeting away from the town hall market, what will happen if the AfD has even more power?”
The fact that the AfD trivialized the Potsdam meeting shows how right-wing extremist the AfD is here and in Germany as a whole, said SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Kienscherf.
Broad civil society is taking to the streets.
“It is the people who are worried about our country.” The xenophobia fueled by the AfD is scaring people away, said Green Party leader Jennifer Jasberg.
“The AfD may be democratically elected, but that doesn’t mean they are Democrats,” said CDU parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering.
He called for people to take part in the election.
“This is at least as important as going to demonstrations.”
The AfD's violent reaction to the large demonstrations shows that the party becomes "incredibly nervous" when they see the masses on the streets, said the leader of the left-wing faction, Cansu Özdemir.
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The high number of participants in the demos against the right-wing and the AfD make it clear that “the vast majority of Hamburg residents do not want this right-wing, twisted agitation, they simply do not want to be incited,” said FDP MP Anna von Treuenfels-Frowein.
dpa