Around 3,000 demonstrators, according to German police sources, attended a protest march on Saturday aimed to counter a 200-strong neo-Nazi rally in the city of Goslar (Central Germany).
Local authorities had arranged for a strong police presence to avoid clashes between both marches.
The left-wing countermarch was led by a slogan that read “Goslar’s future is multicolored. No place for racism,” designed to counter the neo-Nazi slogan “Day of Germany’s Future”.
The neo-Nazi march had been scheduled months ahead but various attempts to ban it ended in failure.
As a last resort, a counter-demonstration was organized backed by trade unions, churches, political parties and humanitarian NGO’s, including political personalities such as former German Foreign Minister and former Social Democratic Party leader, Sigmar Gabriel, who resides in this small historical town located in the Lower-Saxony Lander.
The Goslar counter-march was similar to another one held last week in Berlin to disrupt a right-wing Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) demonstration with the same “Day of Germany’s Future” slogan.
In Berlin, the AfD march with some 4.000 followers was challenged by around 30.000 left wing counter-demonstrators.
In last September’s general elections, the AfD became the first far-right formation to obtain parliamentary seats in the Bundestag since the 50’s.
It became the third largest political force in Germany after it won 12.6 percent of the vote in Germany’s General elections in September 2017 and is currently the lead opposition party after Chancellor Angela Merkel succeeded in re-creating her CDU-CSU/SPD Grand Coalition.
Via EfeInEnglish