DRESDEN: Protesters take part in a demonstration titled 'Unteilbar' (indivisible) against exclusion in Dresden, eastern Germany. - AFP

DRESDEN: Around
35,000 people marched against hate and racism in the eastern German of city
Dresden, organizers said, a week before state elections when far-right party
AfD is projected to make huge gains. Under the banner "indivisible",
a broad coalition of artists, unionists and politicians gathered to urge voters
to reject exclusion, which they argue is championed by right-wing extremists.
The three-hour march took place in a relaxed atmosphere under the warm summer
sun in the picturesque baroque city, one of the most popular tourism
destinations in the former communist east.

But Dresden is
also the cradle of the Islamophobic movement Pegida, and the state of Saxony is
a stronghold of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party. Organizers
had predicted around 10,000 people to turn up for the march, so 35,000 well
exceeded their expectations. Many at the protest held aloft signs that read:
"No place for Nazis" and "Racism is not an alternative".
One of the marchers, 27-year-old Berlin teacher Janna Rakowski, said she wanted
"to show the people of Dresden that they are not alone in the fight
against racism.

"We want to
show our solidarity in this particular situation before the elections in
Saxony," she told AFP. A spokeswoman for the organizers, Susann Riske,
said: "We want to do something against the current political climate and
support those who oppose hatred and violence every day." Greta Schmidt, a
66-year-old retiree from Dresden, held up a sign reading "Grandmas against
the extreme right". "The people are very dissatisfied... the big
parties have sabotaged their chances," she said.

'Moment of truth'

Before the march
started, organizers said they expected at least 10,000 people to turn up at the
protest, while about 70 kilometers away, the co-leader of the AfD Alexander
Gauland is due to address a rally in the city of Chemnitz. An AfD candidate in
the Saxony election, Nico Koehler, on Saturday denied his party is racist,
calling such charges "propaganda designed to get left-wing parties into
the state assembly".

He also called on
other parties to enter into dialogue with the AfD. "Democracy starts with
interpersonal dialogue... even with those you consider the enemy," he said
at a campaign stall in Chemnitz. New polls show the AfD party running neck and
neck with Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party in Saxony. In the state of
Brandenburg, the region surrounding Berlin, some surveys even see the AfD
topping the polls, which would be a major blow for Merkel's junior coalition
partners, the Social Democrats (SPD).

If a strong
showing by the AfD is confirmed in both regional polls, it could throw Merkel's
coalition into a new crisis by potentially heightening calls for the SPD to
pull the plug on the partnership. For the organizers of Saturday's march, the
regional elections, together with October 27 polls in the state of Thuringia,
will be the "moment of truth for democracy". Under the banner
#indivisible, the collective of activists managed to get a quarter of a million
people on the streets in Berlin last October to defend inclusion and unity.

That march was
organized with Germany still shocked by xenophobic attacks in a Saxony city,
Chemnitz, in the aftermath of the stabbing of a German by a migrant. AfD
politicians then also joined in a silent march through Chemnitz alongside the
head of Pegida, as well as neo-Nazis. Since its entry into the Bundestag after
the 2017 general election, the far-right AfD has shaken up German politics,
including breaching taboos such as openly questioning Germany's atonement
culture over World War II.

Its
anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric has proved attractive to those resentful
of Merkel's decision to let in more than a million asylum seekers since the
2015 refugee crisis. The former communist east has been most receptive to the
AfD, with part of the population feeling left behind economically as villages
are depleted of younger inhabitants, many of whom have headed to western
Germany for better paying jobs or opportunities.- AFP