Thousands Protest the Rise of German Far Right Ahead of Feb. 23 General Election

Participants hold lights during a rally against the far right at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, 25 January 2025. (EPA)
Participants hold lights during a rally against the far right at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, 25 January 2025. (EPA)
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Thousands Protest the Rise of German Far Right Ahead of Feb. 23 General Election

Participants hold lights during a rally against the far right at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, 25 January 2025. (EPA)
Participants hold lights during a rally against the far right at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, 25 January 2025. (EPA)

Thousands of Germans on Saturday protested in Berlin and other cities against the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of a Feb. 23 general election.

At Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, participants lit 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.

Merz said Friday that his party will bring motions to toughen migration policy — one of the main election issues — to parliament next week, a move seen risky in case the motions 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 including the group calling itself Fridays for Future dubbed the Berlin rally the “sea of light against the right turn.” They hope it will draw attention to the actions by the new administration of US President Donald Trump and to the political lineup ahead of Germany’s election.

A protester in Cologne, Thomas Schneemann, said it was most important for him to “stay united against the far right.”

“Especially after yesterday and what we heard from Friedrich Merz we have to stand together to fight the far right,” Schneemann said.

The protests took place while AfD was opening its election campaign in the central city of Halle on Saturday. Party leaders Alice Weidel, AfD's candidate for chancellor, and Tino Chrupalla were expected to speak to an audience of some 4,500 people.

Weidel again received the backing of Elon Musk, who addressed the rally remotely, but she has no realistic chance of becoming Germany’s leader as other parties refuse to work with AfD.



Türkiye Detains 282 Suspects in Large-scale Operation Against PKK

Members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB) gather to protest talks, supported by the government, with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to seek an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and Turkish state in Istanbul, Türkiye, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB) gather to protest talks, supported by the government, with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to seek an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and Turkish state in Istanbul, Türkiye, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
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Türkiye Detains 282 Suspects in Large-scale Operation Against PKK

Members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB) gather to protest talks, supported by the government, with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to seek an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and Turkish state in Istanbul, Türkiye, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB) gather to protest talks, supported by the government, with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to seek an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and Turkish state in Istanbul, Türkiye, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Turkish police have detained 282 suspects in the past five days in a large-scale operation targeting the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.
The suspects were detained across 51 provinces, the minister said on the X social media platform.
The detentions came despite renewed efforts between Ankara and the PKK to resolve a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. These efforts are expected to include a call by the PKK’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, for his group to lay down arms.
According to The Associated Press, Yerlikaya said those detained are suspected of providing financial support to the PKK, recruiting members, engaging in propaganda and participating in violent street protests.
Police seized two AK-47 assault rifles and other weapons during the raids, the minister said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has widened a crackdown on the opposition in recent months, arresting journalists and politicians among others.
Several elected Kurdish mayors have been ousted from office and replaced with state appointed officials for alleged links to the PKK. The latest was on Saturday, when the mayor of Van municipality in eastern Türkiye was removed from his post and replaced with the state-appointed governor.