German police deployed to keep anti-immigration AfD group and counter-protesters apart and avoid clashes

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Thousands of demonstrators for and against the far right have faced off in mass rival rallies in Berlin, where calls of “we are the people” were met with chants of “go away, Nazis” and techno music.

Police officers were deployed on Sunday to keep groups apart and prevent clashes, as leftwing militants vowed to “sabotage” the march by the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

On Twitter, Berlin police said they had to use pepper spray to stop demonstrators from trying to break down barriers separating the rallies at Berlin’s Leipziger square. They also announced bridge closures to avoid AfD demonstrators running into their opponents.

The counter-demonstrations, organised under the banner “stop the hatred, stop the AfD”, were triggered by a call from the far-right party for its supporters to march in the capital “for the future of Germany”.

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According to the police, several thousand AfD supporters answered the call, assembling at Berlin’s main railway station shortly after midday, before making their way to the iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Many of them were waving Germany’s black, red and gold flag and carrying blue balloons, the colour of the AfD.

Their chants of “Merkel must go” and “we are the people” were occasionally drowned out by whistles, jeers and outstretched middle fingers from counter-demonstrators in side streets cordoned off by rows of police.

The AfD march marks the first public show of strength by the far-right group since it became the largest opposition party.

Leading AfD figures Jörg Meuthen and Alexander Gauland, who regularly rail against chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in large numbers of mainly Muslim refugees at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis, were expected to address the crowds.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The AfD supporters heading towards the Brandenburg Gate. Photograph: Omer Messinger/EPA

After initially predicting 10,000 AfD supporters would show up, organisers later said they would be happy with a turnout of 5,000.

Berlin AfD chief Georg Pazderski said ahead of the march that many still feared being “stigmatised” for showing their AfD colours, even after the party took nearly 13% of the vote, winning its first seats in parliament in last year’s elections.

But thousands also joined the main counter-protest, staged by an alliance of political parties, unions, student bodies, migrant advocates and civil society organisations.

Walking under a hot Berlin sun, supporters waved rainbow flags and carried banners with messages such as “no to racism” and “go away, Nazis”, while chanting “the whole of Berlin is against the AfD”.

One of the loudest counter-demonstrations was organised by some 100 clubs from Berlin’s legendary techno scene, who were using boats and floats on the River Spree and a convoy of DJ-carrying trucks to “bass away” the AfD.

“The Berlin club culture is everything that Nazis are not,” the group said in a statement. “We are progressive, queer, feminist, anti-racist, inclusive, colourful and we have unicorns.”

Although the vast majority of counter-demonstrations were expected to be peaceful, members of the far-left ntifa movement had on their website called for “chaos”, urging sympathisers “to sabotage the AfD rally using all necessary means”.

Berlin police have deployed 2,000 officers, drafted in from across Germany, to keep the peace.

Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, the AfD rose to prominence by capitalising on widespread anger over the arrival of over one million asylum seekers in Germany since 2015.

It now holds more than 90 seats in the Bundestag where its presence has changed the tone of debate.

This month, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel earned herself a formal rebuke from the parliamentary speaker for describing immigrants as “headscarf girls, welfare-claiming, knife-wielding men and other good-for-nothings”.

Merkel’s left-right coalition government has responded to the AfD’s rise by tightening asylum policies, but the party continues to climb in opinion polls.