Thousands march in Berlin against far-right AfD

Thousands of demonstrators march in Berlin in protest against the far-right Alternative for Germany’s debut in parliament this week.

Bearing posters with slogans like “Stop AfD,” “My voice against incitement” or “My heart beats for diversity,” the demonstrators rally two days before AfD lawmakers will join other MPs at the first sitting of Germany’s newly elected parliament.

The anti-migrant AfD garnered 12.6 percent of the vote in the watershed general election last month and became the country’s third biggest party.

Its arrival in the Bundestag is a political earthquake for post-war Germany, as the AfD’s top figures have repeatedly smashed taboos with their claims on German identity or by challenging Germany’s culture of atonement over World War II.

— AFP