The two Germanies are increasingly at loggerheads: the one, still the mainstream, resolutely pro-European and inclusive; the other, resentful of foreigners and the EU, leans increasingly towards the far-right.
Peaceful, angry marches, which drew over a million people onto the streets of German cities over the weekend, denounced the radical right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and its association with plans for mass forcible “remigration” of foreigners. The AfD – which polls show one in four Germans would now back – has in recent months seen its support surging ahead of all three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition.
The outpouring of rage against the AfD followed media revelations of a “private” meeting in Dusseldorf attended by leading figures in the party and representatives of the “identitarian” right, part of a pan-European “new right” activist network. These included Austrian neo-Nazi Martin Sellner, a prominent supporter of “remigration”, whose ideas for the mass repatriation of migrants, including citizens, were fully aired at the meeting.
Party leader Alice Weidel has sought unconvincingly to distance the party from the meeting, claiming that the AfD does not support forcible deportations based on ethnic origin. But those who attended remain in the party, which has seen three of its regional branches designated extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, which warns that it has been infiltrated by far-right figures who want to overthrow the country’s democratic institutions.
The marches have revived calls for a government ban on the AfD – and seen the emergence of a fledgling umbrella alliance, Hand in Hand, including 160 groups from churches to pro-asylum groups, around the motto “We are the firewall”. They will hold what is likely to be a very large rally in Berlin on February 3rd, to form a human chain around the Reichstag, a symbolic reference to the Reichstag fire which presaged the Nazis seizure of power.