JOSÉ HENRIQUE MARIANTE
Berlin, Germany (Folhapress) – “Nein, Friedrich,” said the poster directly. On a weekend of protest in Germany, the protesters’ favorite target was Friedrich Merz, the conservative candidate who leads the polls and tried to approve a bill with the help of the far right. This Sunday (2), about 160,000 people went to the streets of Berlin to criticize the politician and defend the institutional isolation of AFD, the country’s ultra -right acronym.
It was one of the largest popular statements in the federal capital in recent years, three weeks of parliamentary elections.
On Saturday (1st), demonstrations in the main cities of the country had already gathered more than 80,000 people, also according to official estimates. In Berlin, according to the organizers, there were 250 thousand. Police admitted that the count was complex, as several protests occurred at the same time. All left the surroundings of Parliament, in the city center, to the headquarters of the CDU, the Democratic-Christian Union, Merz’s party.
The caravan, accompanied by more than 500 police officers, began to withdraw blocks before the subtitle address, because “there are many people on the street,” repeated a police spokesman with a megaphone, effusively applauded every time he confirmed the size of the crowd. The initial expectation was 60,000 participants.
Near Konrad Adenauer Haus, CDU building that bears one of the greatest German postwar politicians, the speeches stressed that Merz was not up to the conservative party’s history. Last week, the politician was even criticized by the evangelical church, dominant in the country, for trying to approve of a row legislation of immigration control.
To this end, Merz admitted to repeat strategy that he had already used on Wednesday (29) by approving a motion on the same subject: to have vows from AFD. In Germany, the extremist acronym lives or lived an institutional isolation established by the democratic field. Merz, who alleged urgency to address the theme after episodes of violence caused by immigrants, was criticized even by party colleagues, such as former Breedie Angela Merkel.
“We are Brandmauer”, even, was the motto of the demonstration in Berlin. The German term for firewall precisely designates the distance that most of the politicians and active sectors of civil society require them to be maintained from AFD. The acronym, created in 2013 to defend the departure of Germany from the eurozone, was radicalized by the incorporation of extremists. Part of its members is investigated for hate and neo -Nazi discourse.
In the current campaign, it has the impetus given by the wave of populism in Europe and the digital support of Elon Musk.
Merz and allies spent the weekend stating that they did the right thing by trying to approve the legislation and that AFD votes were an acceptable side effect. CDU internal evaluations, according to German press, detected approval to the strategy. A survey published on Friday (31) by Bild newspaper showed that about 70% of the ears agreed with the need for more rigid immigration control.
In Berlin, the audience that protested was absolutely another. Numerous puns with the name of Merz dominated the posters, one of the lightest spoke of “Schmerz”, pain in German. Screams of order like “Nazis outside”, “fascism never again” and “ashamed of you, CDU” lived with more humorous tirades, such as “because I love Kebab” and “Friedrich, listen to Mom”, in reference to Merkel .
Some politicians also participated in the demonstration, such as Robert Haback, the Green candidate for Prime Minister, and Michael Friedman, a well-known Jewish journalist, who announced his departure from CDU last week after Merz used AFD votes. “We are here because we are against racism and anti -Semitism,” he said in a speech, pondering that the question was not the CDU -hesk of the “unforgivable error, a Democratic Party.”
The problem, said Friedman, is AFD, which is second in the polls. “It’s time for us to stop reacting and start acting.”
