Thousands Protest AfD as Musk Addresses Its Rally

Thousands of Germans on Saturday protested in Berlin and other cities against the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party ahead of a Feb. 23 general election. At Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, participants lighted up their phones, blew whistles, and sang anti-fascist songs, and in Cologne, protesters carried banners denouncing AfD. An opposition bloc of Germany's center-right parties, the Union, led by Friedrich Merz, is leading pre-election polls with AfD in second place, the AP reports.

Merz said Friday that his party will bring motions to toughen migration policy—one of the main election issues—to parliament next week, a risky move in that the motions could go to a vote and pass with the help of AfD. Merz had earlier vowed to bar people from entering the country without proper papers and to step up deportations if he is elected chancellor. Those comments came after a knife attack in Aschaffenburg by a rejected asylum-seeker left a man and a 2-year-old boy dead and spilled over into the election campaign. Activists dubbed the Berlin rally the "sea of light against the right turn." They want to draw attention to actions by President Trump's new administration and to the political lineup going into Germany's election.

It's important to "stay united against the far right," a protester in Cologne said. "Especially after yesterday and what we heard from Friedrich Merz we have to stand together to fight the far right," Thomas Schneemann said. The protests took place while AfD was opening its election campaign in the central city of Halle. Party leaders Alice Weidel, AfD's candidate for chancellor, and Tino Chrupalla were expected to speak to some 4,500 people later Saturday. Weidel again received the backing of Elon Musk, who addressed the rally remotely, though she has no realistic chance of becoming Germany's leader because other parties refuse to work with AfD. Musk told thousands that their party is "the best hope for the future of Germany," per AFP.

(More Germany stories.)