Several tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Sunday January 14 in Germany, after the revelation of a plan for the mass expulsion of people of foreign origin drawn up by the far-right AfD party, which is rising in the polls.

Nearly “10,000 demonstrators” marched through the streets of Potsdam, a town on the outskirts of Berlin, where members of the AfD and neo-Nazis met at the end of November to discuss the plan, police said in a statement on Sunday. . Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock were also present at this gathering.

In Berlin, “thousands of people” also gathered around the iconic Brandenburg Gate. Several thousand demonstrators also marched in other cities across the country.

These rallies were organized after revelations on Wednesday by the German investigative media Correctiv, according to which members of the AfD discussed with neo-Nazis a plan to expel foreigners or people of foreign origin from Germany.

Shock wave in the country

The co-founder of the Austrian Identity Movement (IBÖ), Martin Sellner, notably presented a project to send up to two million people to North Africa – asylum seekers, foreigners and German citizens who would not be ” assimilated.”

Among the AfD members present at the meeting were, among others, the personal representative of party co-leader Alice Weidel, Roland Hartwig, an MP, Gerrit Huy, and the chairman of the AfD regional parliamentary group from Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, according to the media.

These revelations caused a shock wave in the country, while the AfD benefits from favorable dynamics in the polls, with voting intentions of 21 to 23% nationally. The party even exceeds 30% in the states of former East Germany, such as Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg where crucial regional elections will be held in the second half of the year.

Chancellor Scholz also warned on Saturday against “the extremists”, while the far right seeks to exploit social mobilizations, first and foremost that of farmers.

“When inherently legitimate protests turn into anger or contempt for democratic processes and institutions, we all lose. Only those who despise our democracy will benefit,” he warned.