In total, more than 300 towns and villages are scheduled for protests this weekend in the country, according to the "Together Against the Far Right" alliance<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"Never again," was the phrase used by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Holocaust Remembrance Day amid a strong mobilization of his fellow citizens against the far right.<\/p>\n
In total, more than 300 towns and villages are scheduled for demonstrations this weekend in the country, according to the "Together Against the Far Right" alliance.<\/p>\n
For example, in Kiel, a city in northern Germany, 11,500 people, according to the police, 15,000 according to the organizers, gathered in the town hall square at noon.<\/p>\n
"Democracy is not for the faint of heart!" "Red card for the AfD (German far-right party, Alternative for Germany)," the posters read, Johannes Boker, a 29-year-old physiotherapist who attended the rally, told AFP.<\/p>\n
"For me, it was important to demonstrate to honor the victims of National Socialism but also to protest against the rise of the far right," he said.<\/p>\n
Accordingly, in D\u00fcsseldorf, in western Germany, tens of thousands of people gathered, according to the police.<\/p>\n
In Stuttgart, to the southwest, 1,500 to 2,000 people gathered, according to an AFP journalist who was at the scene. "I want to create a Nazi-free zone for my granddaughter," said 60-year-old Margrit Walter.<\/p>\n
In a podcast broadcast today, Chancellor Olaf Scholz recalled Germany's responsibility for the crime against humanity that is the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
He was happy to see his country "on its feet", as "millions of citizens are protesting in the streets".<\/p>\n
For two weeks now, Germans have been holding rallies across the country against the radical tendencies of the AfD.<\/p>\n
"There are three times as many protests as last week, mainly in eastern Germany," the civil alliance Campact, which is among the organizers of the mobilization, wrote in a press release issued this morning.<\/p>\n
In this region where the former German Democratic Republic once stood, the AfD recorded its best electoral performance.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, the social democrat Olaf Scholz took to the streets in Potsdam, a city neighboring Berlin where he lives.<\/p>\n
Today, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius demonstrated in Osnabr\u00fcck (northwest), where he was born.<\/p>\n
International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by the Soviets on January 27, 1945, is an annual occasion for commemoration.<\/p>\n
But this year, the 79th anniversary is taking place amid a tense atmosphere following the January 10 revelation by German investigative media outlet Correctiv of a meeting of extremists in Potsdam last November where they discussed a plan to mass deport foreigners or people of foreign origin.<\/p>\n
In front of members of the Bundestag on January 18, German Interior Minister Nancy Fesser compared the meeting to the Wannsee Conference where the Nazis planned the extermination of Europe's Jews in 1942.<\/p>\n
"Never again" requires everyone's vigilance. Our democracy is not a gift from God, people create it," the chancellor warned, before concluding: "Never again, that goes for every day."<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over 300 protests have been planned in cities and villages across Germany this weekend, according to the alliance "Together against the far right". The protests are in response to the strong mobilization of citizens against the extreme right. Demonstrations have already taken place in cities such as Kiel, where 11,500 people gathered, and Dusseldorf, where tens of thousands of people gathered. The protests aim to honor the victims of National Socialism and protest against the rise of the far right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[506,3,576,136,435,463,577],"class_list":["post-2505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-afd","tag-cyprus","tag-germany","tag-isiyiioeiyi","tag-podcast","tag-protest","tag-protests"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n