In pics | Around 300,000 Germans march against the right wing AfD party over its anti-immigration agenda

A protest against far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the German city of Munich was broken off, on Sunday (Jan 21) after around 50,000 people descended on the city centre, reported news agency AFP. 

Organisers said that the number of people who turned up were twice as many as were registered for the event, while other estimates put the figure even higher, reported AFP.

This comes as tens of thousands of people were expected to turn out again from across the country a day after around 300,000 people bundled up against freezing temperatures for protests in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hanover, Kassel, Dortmund, Wuppertal, Karlsruhe, Nuremberg, Erfurt and other German cities and towns. 

Image shows a demonstration against racism and far-right politics in Munich, southern Germany on January 21, 2024.

Image shows protesters during a demonstration against racism and far right politics in front of the Reichstag building - a historic legislative government building - in Berlin, Germany on January 21, 2024. 

Hundreds of thousands of people first took to the streets, on Saturday (Jan 20) across more than 100 German cities and towns in protest against the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.

The AfD sparked outcry after it emerged that the party’s members discussed mass deportation plans at a meeting of extremists. Around 35,000 people joined a call under the banner “Defend democracy – Frankfurt against the AfD” marching across the financial heart of Germany. 

According to reports, members of the AfD attended meetings with neo-Nazis and other extremists to discuss the mass deportation of migrants, asylum seekers and German citizens of foreign origin deemed to have failed to integrate.

Image shows participants gathering for a demonstration against racism and far right politics in Erfurt, eastern Germany, on January 20, 2024.

The Lord Mayor of Frankfurt Mike Josef addressed the crowd of protesters and said that the protest took place to ensure that those "incendiaries" would not come to power again. 

He also spoke about radicalism and racism had always led to "misery and the impoverishment of all people in our city, our country and to the downfall of coexistence".

Similarly, one of Frankfurt protest's co-organizers, Peter Josiger, said the deportation plans discussed at the secret meeting were "nothing less than an attack on the basis of our coexistence" and called for "an active stand against the right from the entire breadth of society." 

Former German President Christian Wulff and Minister President of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, addressed about 35,000 people in the German city of Hanover's Opera Square. 

Image shows Lord Mayor of Frankfurt Mike Josef speaking to around 35,000 people protesting in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday. January 20, 2024.

A report by news outlet Correctiv detailed how members from AfD and the largest opposition party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), met with far-right extremists in November and discussed "remigration." 

Remigration is a term frequently used in far-right circles as a euphemism for the expulsion of immigrants and minorities, including those who are naturalized German citizens.

The news about the meeting near the east German city of Potsdam sent shockwaves across Germany and came at a time when AfD is riding high in opinion polls ahead of three major regional elections in the country. 

Amid backlash, the party confirmed its presence at the meeting and said that its proposals for remigration which were part of its last election manifesto, do not involve naturalised German citizens.

The AfD also said that it was Martin Sellner, a leader of Austria’s Identitarian Movement, who made these comments at the meeting.

Sellner subscribes to the “great replacement” conspiracy theory that claims there is a plot by non-white migrants to replace Europe’s “native” white population. 

Image shows demonstrators holding placards with a swastika being dumped and another one being barred during a demonstration against racism and far-right politics in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany on January 20, 2024. 

Incumbent German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined a demonstration last weekend, said any plan to expel immigrants or citizens alike amounted to "an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us".

He also urged everyone "to take a stand – for cohesion, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany." 

AfD was founded in 2013 as an anti-establishment, anti-euro force by academics and economists, however, it has morphed into an anti-immigrant party, ditching its original founders.