'Never again': Huge protests against far-right continue in Germany

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Hundreds of thousands of people took the streets across Germany this weekend as the nation enters a second week of protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Around 100,000 gathered outside the Bundestag in Berlin alone, said the police, with up to 200,000 counted by the organizers in Bavaria's Munich. Significant turnout was also reported in the cities that represent traditional the AfD voting strongholds in eastern Germany, like Leipzig and Dresden.

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The AfD, polling second in nationwide surveys...

Since the AfD is the 2nd strongest power in Germany and in the parliament for quite some time now, I would say its about time to protest against it. I mean great they do, but I don't see any bottom-up sharp reflexes, given their recent history.

What recent history do you mean?

There were various secret meetings that became public afterwards. From plans to storming the Bundestag like Jan 6 and the Capitol to meetings with far right Nazis that are on watchlists of the local secret service, the Bundesverfassungsschutz.

Latest meeting was on the topic of „How to deport political opponents and immigrants after seizing the political system“ which not only featured known Nazis but members of the CDU Conservative Party (Merkel‘s Crew).

That was the drop too much that ignited the whole protest we see now. And it is well overdue if you ask me

The Verfassungsschutz is nothing like the Secret Service, it's more like Homeland Security or the FBI.

Mayhaps, I don’t have an equivalent table comparing all the services here to others in the world 😅

The Secret Service, AFAIK, is mostly tasked with protecting the president (and related persons), they are basically bodyguards.

Protecting the president (and other eligible high profile individuals) and dealing with currency fraud, apparently.

They'd get SO pissed if someone slipped Bill Clinton a bogus $20 bill!

Both BKA tasks in Germany, the FBI is a good comparison though aside from those bodyguard tasks and reserves the states can call upon (which then act under state law) without boots on the ground. That'd be the BPOL, roughly speaking boarder and coast guard, your Amtrak cops and the TSA. Then there's the Parliamentary Police, and the Zoll, the armed wing of the finance ministry. And that's actually all police forces we have (on the federal level), mostly because not everything is its own agency. The states pretty much mirror that structure (investigative vs. boots vs. financial police), with possibly the addition of the forces of the justice ministries, they're cops in a sense (court ushers, prison guards, suchlike).

2nd??? SPD/FPD/Grün Ampel I guess are 1? CSU/CDU is less popular now than the AfD? That's wild.

Support for Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) hit an all-time high of 23% in a poll on Tuesday as the party continued to benefit from the fallout of a budget crisis. Although the ruling coalition last week agreed a budget for next year after a court ruling upended its financial plans, mainstream parties fear that economic uncertainty could push voters to the AfD before elections in three eastern states next year. The Forsa poll put the AfD up one percentage point from last week, a record high for the institute, closing the gap with the opposition conservative bloc which was unchanged at 31%. The radical left Linke slipped one point to 3% while other parties were unchanged. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) were on 14% and the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats, who share power with the SPD, were on 13% and 5% respectively.

Reuters 2023-12-19

Support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) dropped slightly in two polls published on Tuesday after 10 days of nationwide protests against the far-right party, although it remained firmly in second place. Support for the AfD dropped 2 percentage points to 20% in a Forsa poll, the lowest level in four months. The party remained behind the opposition conservatives on 31% but still well ahead of all the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left coalition, who together were polling 32%. The AfD dropped 1.5 percentage points on the week to 21.5% in the poll by the German Institute for New Social Answers (INSA), behind the conservatives on 30.5% and the ruling coalition on 31%. "The demonstrations against the AfD are supported by 37% of Germans and they are showing an impact," INSA chief Hermann Binkert said.

Reuters 2024-01-23

It seems like it has only gone down 1.5% since the protests. 20% support is quite worrying.

It would be weird if the protests had a big effect on the predicted votes. Who would be all for the AfD and then suddenly go "yeah well, I changed my mind now"?

The protests should mainly convince the government to finally start the process to ban the AfD.

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They are only 2nd if you count individual parties, not coalitions. So "2nd strongest power" is misleading

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