Several thousand people rallied across on Saturday in protests organized by the new alliance Together for Germany, with some facing counter-demonstrations, arrests and scuffles with police.
The is in favor of stricter nationwide border controls and an end to financial and military support for Ukraine, with security agencies warning that the protests could be hijacked by extremists.
How big were the Together for Germany protests?
Police said some 1,100 people gathered in Weimar, in , a bastion of the . Right-wing speakers included a far-right extremist known regionally.
Germany’s domestic security agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, had warned ahead of Saturday’s planned actions that extremists could try to steer the rally in line with their own agenda.
Some 850 people turned out in response to a call for counter-demonstrations by the Weimar Citizens’ Alliance Against the Right.
Counter-demonstrators in Dortmund temporarily surrounded one of the alliance’s largest events. According to police, the protest alliance brought some 800 people onto the streets with the number of counter-demonstrators at about 300 to 500.
Some 200 people also attended a Together for Germany demonstration in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe. Six groups organized counter-demos, attended by some 1,200 people.
In the western city of Koblenz, more than 50 people were ordered to leave the city center and 17 people were taken into custody with more than 40 criminal proceedings initiated. Some 800 people attended the “Koblenz Together Against Fascism” rally, outnumbering the 450 who attended the Together for Germany event.
Further north and in the more left-leaning cities of Berlin and Hamburg, there were smaller alliance demonstrations, significantly outnumbered by counterprotests.
How violent were clashes with police?
In the southwestern state of , police said officers were attacked by a group of partially masked left-wing demonstrators in the city of Reutlingen.
There were “violent attacks on colleagues,” a police spokesman said.
Officers responded by using batons and pepper spray and one person collapsed among the demonstrators.
In Nuremberg in northern Bavaria, counter-demonstrators also tried to prevent a gathering of Together for Germany by forming multiple blockades in the city center, police said.
Here, too, there were physical attacks on officers. “Police officers had to repeatedly use direct force, including batons and pepper spray,” the police said. Eight officers were injured.
During the alliance’s first day of action in March, people took to the streets in Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main, Hanover, Munich, Dresden, and other cities.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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