50,000 attend concert against German far-Right amid calls for surveillance of AfD

Justin Huggler
Updated
The concert come in reaction to a week of sometimes violent rallies by far-right groups against migrants and leftist counter protests - REUTERS
The concert come in reaction to a week of sometimes violent rallies by far-right groups against migrants and leftist counter protests - REUTERS

More than 50,000 people attended a special open-air protest concert against the far-Right yesterday (MON) in Chemnitz, the German city that has been the scene of neo-Nazi rallies in recent days.

Huge crowds streamed into the small eastern city from across Germany to make a stand against the far-Right protests which saw foreigners hunted through the streets and neo-Nazis openly giving the Hitler salute last week.

Several of the country’s best known rock groups  came together for a one-off concert against the extremists under the banner “We are more” — a direct reference to the far-Right chant of “We are the people.”

The numbers dwarfed the 11,000 who took part in rival far-Right and far-Left protests at the weekend and brought the city to a standstill. Mobile networks collapsed under the demand and there were concerns there would not be enough trains for people to get home.

Police refused permission for far-Right groups to stage rival protests on the grounds there was no space left in the city. Rallies in support of the concert also took place in Hannover and Kiel.

The concert was part of an effort to encourage young Germans to stand up against far-right extremism - Credit: Reuters
The concert was part of an effort to encourage young Germans to stand up against far-right extremism Credit: Reuters

“We are not naive. We are not under the illusion that we can just hold a concert and the world is saved,” said Felix Brummer, the lead singer of Kraftklub, one of the bands involved. “But sometimes it's important to show people they’re not alone.”

Chemnitz has been gripped by days of violent protest since the death of Daniel Hillig, a local German-Cuban man, in a suspected stabbing by two migrants from Iraq and Syria just over a week ago.

Local people have staged their own protests, claiming the streets are unsafe at night. But they have also accused far-Right groups of hijacking the killing for their own political ends.

Hillig’s widow, Bianca, on Monday came forward to condemn the violent protests. “Daniel would never have wanted that! Never!” she told Bild newspaper. “I watched what happened in the city. It wasn’t about Daniel any more. Daniel was neither left nor right. What's going on would never have occurred to him. We only want to mourn in peace.”

Several nationalist groups called for marches in the wake of the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq - Credit:  Ralf Hirschberger
Several nationalist groups called for marches in the wake of the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq Credit: Ralf Hirschberger

The huge numbers attending Monday's concert come after Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, called for the country’s “silent majority” to “get up off the couch and make a stand against the far-Right”.

Meanwhile German politicians are locked in debate over whether the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) should be treated as a threat to national security after it openly sided with far-Right groups protesting in the city.

Prominent MPs from the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD) have led calls for the AfD to be put under surveillance by the intelligence services after it staged a joint march with the Pegida anti-Muslim movement in Chemnitz.

“The refugee question divides society, and the AfD is riding ever more radically on this wave,” Thomas Oppermann, deputy speaker of the German parliament, said. “The security services must keep a close eye on the division of labor of between the AfD and neo-Nazis.”

Two of Germany’s regional state government’s on Monday announced that they were putting the party’s local youth movements under surveillance.

But senior members of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) oppose calls to widen the surveillance nationally and say the place to fight the AfD is at the ballot box. 

“Putting the AfD under surveillance could allow the party to play the role of martyr,” Daniel Günther, the regional prime minister of Schleswig-Holstein warned.