Germany: 160,000 people protest against far-right party in Berlin
Germany: 160,000 people protest against far-right party in Berlin
The protests came after some parties voted alongside the far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), over a non-binding resolution on immigration last week.
Summary
Around 160,000 people protested in Berlin against cooperation with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after some parties, including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), voted alongside them on immigration policies.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz, a frontrunner for chancellor, faced backlash for attempting to pass an immigration bill with AfD’s support, despite ruling out a coalition.
The protests, part of nationwide demonstrations ahead of Germany’s snap elections, highlight fears over normalizing far-right influence in politics.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned Merz’s actions.
I am fascinated by news agencies copying the official numbers from the police. I was there. We were stuck most of the time because even the large areas near the Reichstag were overcrowded. From what I can say I guess it was way closer to that 250k of people the organizers were talking about.
The main difference between police and organiser numbers is generally that organisers measure how many came in total, which is what they care about, while police measure how many where present at the same time, because that's what they care about.
It's not some grand fucking conspiracy.
I don't see a conspiracy here, it's more like a bit of frustration of some parts of the press not doing their jobs. Fact checking police numbers is one of them.
Also: Speaking about "then thousands" at a protest gives another vibe than speaking about "hundred thousands" or "a quarter of a million" which is closer to the truth and makes a democratic protest seem smaller than it is.
Can we start a metric for measuring a protest size relative to its country population?
Then get some benchmarks from historical protests? Ex: famous civil rights protest had 0.8% population turnout.
Then you could say more objecively if a modern protest represents a historical turnout...
Germany's population is around 83 million, Berlin would be around 3.5 million. So 160k is a lot (4.5% of Berlin's citizens).
Further reference: the largest demo in Berlin was the protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and counted around 500,000 participants.
If you’re trying to find out, for all practical purposes the US doesn’t protest. They just removed online.