AFP and DPA

The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 26, 2024, p. 29

Berlin. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the far right in Thuringia and Saxony in eastern Germany yesterday ahead of regional elections in which the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is gaining ground in the polls.

Around 30,000 people took to the streets of Thuringia and Saxony to protest right-wing extremismthe citizen alliance Campact said in a statement.

In Leipzig, Saxony, where some 11,000 protesters gathered, they held banners reading: Defending democracy. Fascists, out of our Parliamentaccording to AFP journalists.

According to Campact figures, 12,000 people took to the streets in Dresden, the capital of Saxony, and 7,000 protested in Erfurt, Thuringia.

Decisive regional elections will be held on 1 September in these two federal states located on the territory of the former East Germany.

The far right, represented by the AfD, is gaining ground in polls in these two regions with around 30 percent of voting intention.

On 22 September, local elections will also be held in Brandenburg, a state also located in the former GDR.

Yesterday the entire democratic civil society gatheredcelebrated in a statement Christoph Bauz, general director of Campact, who asked the other parties completely exclude any alliance with the AfD.

Solingen attacker remanded in custody

Prosecutors have ordered the preventive detention of a Syrian citizen for the deadly stabbing attack on Friday night in Solingen, an attack claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) that shocked the country and fueled political debate.

The suspect, a Syrian identified as Issa al H, will remain in custody for suspicion of membership in a terrorist group abroadas well as by murder and attempted murdersaid the Karlsruhe federal prosecutor’s office, which is responsible for combating terrorism.