Several thousand demonstrators gathered at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Monday evening to protest against the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a day after the far-right party recorded a decisive victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. Berlin police put attendance at roughly 5,000 an hour after the rally began at 6:00 pm, while the campaign network Campact, which organised the event with Fridays for Future under the slogan "Time to Act: Stop the AfD," said 14,000 people took part.
The turnout marked a striking contrast with early 2025, when comparable demonstrations drew hundreds of thousands of people nationwide, including very large gatherings in the capital. Marie-Therese Hattendorf, a 36-year-old participant, said the modest numbers were "not a sign that people are rising up, ready to act, and aware that it is already the eleventh hour."
She described German democracy as seriously endangered and said she wanted to exercise her right to demonstrate while she still has it, adding that she genuinely fears the situation could change within five years and that she might then consider leaving the country. An AFP photographer at the scene reported that people of all age groups had assembled beneath the landmark.
The AfD, classified by the state office for the protection of the constitution in Saxony-Anhalt as confirmed right-wing extremist, took almost 44 percent of the vote, more than doubling its share compared with the 2021 election. The result fell short of an absolute majority, but it left the party on the verge of leading a state government for the first time since the Nazi era, an outcome widely described in Germany as a political earthquake.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right CDU suffered heavy losses and finished with 17.2 percent. The new state parliament will also include the SPD, the Greens and the Left, along with the BSW for the first time. Saxony-Anhalt is an economically struggling region of about 2.1 million residents.
Christoph Bautz, executive director of Campact, argued that the party intends to use the state as a launch pad to win first the region, then the east, and eventually the whole country. He said the demonstration was intended to bring together a broad cross-section of civil society and to trigger a wave of protest across Germany, insisting that enemies of the constitution must not govern and that the BSW must not help them into office.
Ellen, a 68-year-old from Hamburg who attended with her husband Michael and her niece Johanna, said she feared democracy was breaking down and had received the result with dismay. Michael called the vote deeply unsettling.
Alice, a 48-year-old Berliner who came with her son and dog, said the outcome had left her depressed, and that the strong male vote for the party depressed her further as a feminist. She placed considerable responsibility on the federal government and called for an open society in which everyone feels welcome and understood.
The AfD is already the second-largest force in the federal parliament and has topped national opinion polls for months. Merz said on Monday he was deeply shocked by the vote but pledged to continue with his planned reforms. Two further regional elections, in Berlin and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, are scheduled for September 20.
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