On Holocaust Memorial Day, Germans take action against the extreme right and for democracy

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Germany on Saturday for Holocaust Memorial Day to demonstrate in support of democracy and against the rise of a far-right party, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is on track to make political gains the state elections this year.

In villages and medium-sized cities such as Düsseldorf, Kiel, Mannheim and Osnabrück, demonstrators held up signs reading: 'There is no alternative to democracy', 'Kick the Nazis out' and 'Voting for the AfD is so 1933', a reference to the period in which the Nazis came to power.

In Germany, Holocaust Memorial Day, which this year marks the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Soviet army, is associated with the promise “Never Again.” The vow has taken on new resonance amid the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Germany and the likelihood that a far-right party with extremist elements will gain further political power.

“I always thought that our next generation would live even more openly, more tolerantly, without fear and worry,” said Dursiye Ayyildiz, who heads an organization that advocates for migrants in Kiel and addressed the crowd there. “However, I see that right-wing ideas are unfortunately being passed on – and that worries me for the next generation,” she said.

Millions of people in Germany have gathered in cities such as Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, as well as smaller towns, in recent weeks since news emerged that a group of AfD officials had met with neo-Nazis and other far-right figures at a hotel in Germany. Potsdam to discuss the possibility of a mass deportation from Germany of millions of immigrants and others considered foreigners.

On Friday evening, activists lit candles in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to spell out the phrase “Never again is now.” And Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in his weekly video address: “January 27 calls on us: stay visible! Stay audible!” and added: “Against anti-Semitism, against racism, against misanthropy – and for our democracy.”

Saturday's demonstrations attracted about 100,000 participants in Düsseldorf, about 20,000 in Mannheim and about 11,500 in the northern city of Kiel, according to police estimates. Dozens of protests also took place in smaller cities and towns.

Similar demonstrations have also taken place in neighboring Austria, where concerns about the influence of the far right have also increased. Tens of thousands of people protested at a pro-democracy rally outside parliament in Vienna on Friday evening, and smaller protests were held in Salzburg and Innsbruck.

Although support for the AfD has surged in Germany in recent months, news of the meeting and subsequent demonstrations against the far-right have put the party on the back foot.

Last week, Tino Chrupalla, the party's co-chairman, denied on public television that the party had approved the secret meeting. Marine Le Pen, a longtime ally of the AfD in France and still hopeful for the 2027 presidential elections, threatened during the meeting to end cooperation with the party. And recent opinion polls indicate a dent in the party's popularity, with support for the party falling to less than 20 percent of respondents for the first time in many months.

Concerns about the influence of the far right in the country have also increased as investigative journalists have exposed links between respected members of society and the far right. Over the past week the public broadcaster ARD discovered that a former Berlin state politician had given money to the Identitarian Movement, which espouses the superiority of European ethnic groups. The movement's main ideologue, Martin Sellner, was one of the central players in the secret meeting and has been in favor of mass deportations for years.

The developments have prompted many to compare modern Germany to the Weimar Republic, the fragile democracy of the 1920s and 1930s whose failure gave rise to the Nazis.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius drew that comparison on Saturday when he addressed a crowd of about 25,000 people in Osnabrück, a city where he was mayor for seven years. He told those present that the AfD wanted to change the entire German social system.

“This means nothing other than that they want to return to the dark times of racial madness, discrimination, inequality and injustice,” Mr Pistorius said.