Thousands protest in Germany against the far-right as AfD party begins election campaign

Thousands of people across major cities in Germany on Saturday protested the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of a 23 February general election.

In one of the protests at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the German capital, participants lit up their phones, blew whistles, and sang anti-fascist songs.

Some activists, including the group calling itself Fridays for Future, dubbed the Berlin rally the “sea of light against the right turn.”

In Cologne, protesters carried banners denouncing AfD. Over 15 thousand people rallied on the city's streets to protest against the rise of right-wing extremism, according to local reports.

One of the protesters, Thomas Schneemann, said it was most important for him to ”stay united against the far right." "Especially after yesterday and what we heard from Friedrich Merz, we have to stand together to fight the far right,” Schneemann said.

"We see a party (AfD) that so far gets 20% of votes and might get more, and this party shows a racist, discriminatory, and intolerant attitude openly, and I think it is important to set a signal for a tolerant and active democracy," said another protester, Britta Straschewski, 36, a teacher from Cologne.

Led by Friedrich Merz, the opposition bloc of Germany’s centre-right parties, the Unions are currently leading pre-election polls, with the far-right AfD in second place.

Merz said Friday that his party will bring motions to toughen migration policy to parliament next week, a move seen as risky in case the motions go to a vote and pass with the help of AfD.

Earlier, he had vowed to bar people from entering the country without proper papers and to step up deportations if he is elected chancellor.

Those comments came