Thousands protest the rise of German far right ahead of Feb. 23 general election

BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of Germans on Saturday protested in Berlin and other cities against the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of a Feb. 23 general election.

At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, participants lighted up their phones, blew whistles and sang anti-fascist songs, and in Cologne, protesters carried banners denouncing AfD.

An opposition bloc of Germany’s center-right parties, the Union, led by Friedrich Merz, is leading pre-election polls with AfD in second place.

Merz said Friday that his party will bring motions to toughen migration policy — one of the main election issues — to parliament next week, a move seen risky in case the motions go to a vote and pass with the help of AfD.

Merz had earlier vowed to bar people from entering the country without proper papers and to step up deportations if he is elected chancellor. Those comments came after a knife attack in Aschaffenburg by a rejected asylum-seeker left a man and a 2-year-old boy dead and spilled over into the election campaign.

Activists including the group calling itself Fridays for Future dubbed the Berlin rally the “sea of light against the right turn.” They hope it will draw attention to the actions by the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and to the political lineup ahead of Germany’s election.

A protester in Cologne, Thomas Schneemann, said it was most important for him to ”stay united against the far right.”

“Especially after yesterday and what we heard from Friedrich Merz we have to stand together to fight the far right,” Schneemann said.

The protests took place place while AfD was opening its election campaign in the central city of Halle on Saturday. Party leaders Alice Weidel, AfD’s candidate for chancellor, and Tino Chrupalla were expected to speak to an audience of some 4,500 people.

Weidel again received the backing of Elon Musk, who addressed the rally remotely, but she has no realistic chance of becoming Germany’s leader as other parties refuse to work with AfD.

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Associated Press journalist Kerstin Sopke in Halle, Germany contributed to this report.

The Associated Press