The AfD is in crisis, but if citizens are freezing because of high gas prices, the party wants to ensure a hot autumn. Parts of the left are also flirting with a revival of “Monday demonstrations”. Thuringia’s head of state Ramelow is not one of them.
The AfD wants to take its protest against the federal government to the streets from next month. Party leader Tino Chrupalla announced that she wants to start a campaign under the motto “Our country first” on September 8, which should include regular street demonstrations. The core demands of the campaign are an end to sanctions against Russia and a fight against inflation.
There will be a “hot autumn”, said the AfD chairman. “The federal government set it on fire itself.” His party will also seek solidarity with citizens’ initiatives outside of the AfD at the rallies, Chrupalla said. He expects tens of thousands of participants by winter: “The mobilization has only just begun.” The AfD is aiming for Monday as the weekday for the upcoming protest rallies, said Chrupalla. However, he did not want to see a historical reference to the Monday demonstrations in the late phase of the GDR. “The Monday after the weekend is a good time to stretch your feet,” he said simply. “Monday is a good day.”
As a unique feature of his party, Chrupalla emphasized the pro-Russian attitude of the AfD. Only the AfD is calling for the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline to be put into operation, which is not being used because of the sanctions against Russia. Chrupalla accused Economics Minister Robert Habeck of waging an “economic war against Russia” that would primarily damage the German economy and cause “impoverishment” in Germany.
He considers Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin “reliable” as gas suppliers, Chrupalla said. He was convinced that as soon as the sanctions were lifted, Russia would supply gas again as usual. Chrupalla said he didn’t see a problem with demarcation from other protest organizers such as the extreme right-wing Free Saxons. With the rallies, his party is making an offer that citizens can follow. These would not be checked for their attitude.
When pointed out that Russian flags and banned war flags had recently been waved at right-wing rallies in Saxony, for example, Chrupalla replied: “If banned flags are shown, that’s a task for the law enforcement agencies.” He himself does not want “an attitude test of who comes to our demonstrations”. This is “not the task of the AfD”.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow from the left sees the announced protests with concern. “It’s not about articulating legitimate protest,” Ramelow told the RND newspapers. “It’s about driving politicians out of public space.” At the same time, he emphasized that his party’s “justified protests” had “nothing at all to do” with these tendencies. The left “would not intimidate anyone”. She expresses that the federal government has “forgotten pensioners, the self-employed and students and has lost sight of social arithmetic”. That needs to be addressed. However, he would “never talk about Monday demonstrations because the word suggests a certain image”.
The left is at odds over how to shape their protests against rising energy prices. The parliamentary group’s representative for East Germany, Leipzig member of the Bundestag Sören Pellmann, had announced a “hot autumn” with Monday demos in East Germany. The problem for the left is the demarcation from right-wing forces that want to mobilize against the state. Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff called Pellmann’s call indecent. “Of course there is the right to demonstrate, that’s why I took to the streets myself in 1989. But I find it indecent that the delicate situation in Europe is being exploited and the Monday demonstrations continue to be exploited,” Haseloff told the “Spiegel”.
Thuringia’s head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, told the t-online portal: “The current situation could be almost paradisiacal for extremists.” Because many crises meet at the same time, “an explosive overall situation arises”.