150,000 join anti-right-wing demonstration in Berlin

Despite drizzling rain, significantly more than the 100,000 people announced have gathered in Berlin for a demonstration against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the far right, reported dpa.

More than 150,000 people are currently on site, the police wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday afternoon. The organizers spoke of around 300,000 participants.

A total of 100,000 people had been registered. A human chain was planned under the motto "We are the firewall."

The action against hate and intolerance is backed by an alliance called Hand in Hand of more than 1,300 organizations.

"We want to set an example for solidarity and that we are against discrimination. And that we think it's great when a society with diversity instead of uniformity continues to exist in Germany," said 36-year-old Serkan Bingöl, a Berliner with a German passport and secondary school teacher, who had come with a group of refugees.

For some weeks now, tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets all over Germany to protest against right-wing extremism prompted by a meeting of extremists in Potsdam outside Germany where the concept of "remigration" was discussed, namely deporting large numbers of people of foreign origin, even under duress.