Skip Navigation
2 comments

  • This is the best summary I could come up with:

    In the eastern city of Cottbus, we saw a man being sent away from an official protest for allegedly wearing a symbol of the Reichsbürger; a disparate far right movement that rejects the modern German state.

    A senior organiser of the Cottbus demo told the BBC they learned later that known far-right figures had remained within the hundreds-strong crowd, which was made up of a cross-section of people well beyond the farming community.

    Music blares from a huge speaker cased in a wheelie bin as people huddle round fire pits in a crowd made up of farmers, families, tradesmen and even an off-duty police officer.

    It comes as a debate about whether to ban the party reignited after investigative outlet, Correctiv, reported that senior AfD figures were present at a far-right meeting at which plans to deport millions of people were discussed.

    Chancellor Scholz has insisted his government is taking the farmers arguments seriously and that ministers have offered a "good compromise" after partially watering down their initial subsidy cut proposals.

    And while there's little evidence that the far-right has fully managed to hijack the ongoing farmers protests, it's also clear that broader discontent - about issues like inflation and globalization - is being absorbed into an agricultural movement that is simultaneously energising Germany's political extremes.

    The original article contains 851 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!