In Chemnitz, Germany, far-right activists hold a demonstration, 2018 /Odd Andersen/CFP
Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday voiced concern over the rise of extreme-right tendencies in his country 79 years after the Auschwitz extermination camp was liberated.
"New reports are emerging all the time: about neo-Nazis and their dark networks," Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a recorded video speech commemorating the January 27, 1945, liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops.
"At the same time, right-wing populists are gaining ground, fuelling fear and sowing hatred," Scholz said, adding that this should not be accepted.
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Scholz's remarks came on the 79th anniversary of the closing of Auschwitz and followed a week of protests against the right across Germany.
"January 27 calls out to us, stay visible. Stay audible. Against antisemitism, against racism, against misanthropy, and for our democracy."
"It is the cohesion of democrats that makes our democracy strong," Scholz said, "showing it confidently in public - as is happening now - feels good."
Protesters in Germany carry signs opposing the AFD Party /Liam Cleary/SOPA /Getty via VFP
Still a minority
Germany was engulfed by a week of protests following a report that some senior AfD party officials discussed policies such as the mass deportation of citizens of foreign origin at a meeting with right-wing radicals in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.
The proposals for "unassimilated citizens" to be deported to "a model state in north Africa", reported by the media outlet Correctiv, horrified many Germans. Some have compared the proposals to the Nazis' initial plan to deport European Jews to Madagascar and the meeting to the 1942 conference of Wannsee - near Potsdam - where Nazi officials plotted the Holocaust.
Over 100,000 gather in front of German parliament to protest against the AFD. /Liesa Johannssen/Reuters
State media reported that over 100,000 people had gathered in front of the Bundestag in Berlin alone, while protests in other cities also had attendances in the thousands.
Germany hasn't seen any large scale far right gatherings since anti-mask and isolation measures protests engulfed the country in 2020.
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