After protests in Berlin and Leipzig, thousands of demonstrators also gathered in Cologne in the evening. The trigger was the recently published research into a secret meeting between AfD members and right-wing extremists.
Private individuals registered the demonstration at short notice under the motto “Alliance against Racism” – originally with around 1,000 participants. This number was corrected upwards to 7,000 participants before the demo started. But in the evening more and more people flocked to the central Heumarkt in downtown Cologne.
The train route had to be changed at short notice
Apparently tens of thousands of people gathered there, as the police confirmed to WDR. The square and the side streets were crowded. The participants then marched in a long demonstration in the freezing cold across the city center to Neumarkt and then over the Deutzer Bridge to the other side of the Rhine. Thousands of people shouted: “The whole of Cologne hates the AfD!” A police spokesman described the atmosphere to the dpa news agency as “entirely peaceful.”
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Many demonstrators waved homemade posters and banners. Several banners called for a ban on the AfD. EU flags and rainbow flags were also carried, and Christian groups were represented as well as supporters of the Marxist-Leninist Party.
Trigger Correctiv revelations
The trigger for the large demo was the recently published research of a meeting of, among others, members of the AfD, the Union of Values, the Identitarian Movement, but also influential entrepreneurs and right-wing extremists. Secret plans were discussed there to expel millions of people from Germany, including asylum seekers and Germans with a migrant background.
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Our sources:
WDR research
WDR reporter on site
dpa news agency