Far-right demonstrations tripled in one year in Germany

The number of far-right demonstrations in Germany during the first half of 2023 tripled compared to the same period in 2022, the Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday.

In response to a parliamentary question from the opposition party The Left - Germany's largest center-left force - the ministry said that 35 far-right rallies were organized in the first half of 2022, while so far this year. 110.

"The mobilization force is increasing again after the pandemic," said Petra Pau, from La Izquierda and vice president of the Bundestag (Lower House), according to the DPA news agency.

Pau denounced that most of the protests were directed against the refugees and stressed the importance of preventing "extremely hostile sentiments from settling at a level similar to that of the early 1990s and 2015."

Against this backdrop, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is growing in the polls and recently achieved its first two victories in local elections.

In a poll carried out by the Insa institute for the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the AfD ranks at 21% of voting intentions, only below the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, which obtained 27%.

Meanwhile, the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) reached 19% support.

In line, a June 29 poll conducted by the Sinus Institute for Social Research revealed that the middle-class segment of AfD voters rose from 43% two years ago to 56% today.

"What we are currently seeing is that the younger and more modern middle classes, who are actually better educated, are also showing affinity with the AfD," Silke Borgstedt, director of the Sinus Institute, told Deutsche Welle.