Following Saturday’s huge demonstrations, further protests on Sunday saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of Germany’s cities, with campaigners condemning a neo fascist meeting that discussed the idea of deporting immigrants en masse. Some members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) were said to be present at that meeting.

A report by journalism network Corrective on the meeting — which primarily focused on a mass deportation programme for migrants and asylum-seekers, including some German citizens — has sent shockwaves throughout the country, with banners calling for far-right parties to be outlawed. The AfD is represented in German parliament and it is bound by the country’s constitution. The alleged meeting proposed that the immigrants should be identified and deported en masse since they might very soon replace the white natives. The focus was mostly on coloured people.

While in Germany as also in other European countries, there are fringe extremist groups which call for total deportation of immigrants, in Germany, this move has the support of AfD which is an important political party and is bidding for power by aligning with other centre right parties. The disclosure has shocked the German people so much that even the government ministers and the representatives of the churches backed the protests. Some of them joined the protests also.

The Party of European Socialists said it stood with the protesters in Germany. “Millions are protesting against the rise of the far right,” it said. “German citizens want their democracy to be protected against intolerance and racism.”

Among the prominent German politicians and elected officials who voiced support for Sunday’s protests was President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who released a video statement saying: “The future of our democracy does not depend on the volume of its opponents, but on the strength of those who defend democracy.” German Social Democratic Party which is running the government in coalition with the Free Democrats is under tremendous pressure from its liberal supporters to take strong action against the far right activists. The German Left which is now split into two parties have also mobilized their supporters in big numbers. The protest demonstrations will continue next Saturday also.

In France, the Left as also the Socialist Party have been at the forefront of the huge demonstrations last week end against President’s Macron’s new programme on immigration. The UN’s special rapporteur on racism has criticised President Emmanuel Macron’s fiercely opposed immigration Bill as violating France’s constitutional commitment to equality and liberty.

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance Ashwini KP warned that the Bill, which includes obstacles to family reunification and to migrants’ access to benefits, contradicted the French constitution. President Macron is facing the pressure from the far right Le Pen’s party which has its main focus on the alleged illegal immigration and is eroding the supporting base of Macron. President is worried to combat that. His new immigration law proposal imposes some strict norms which violate the basics of French constitution. The demonstrators have asked the President not to sign the law.

The trade union CGT of the French Communist Party was the main organizer of the march.CGT national secretary Sophie Binet said: “Our objective is to denounce a law that is not the France of solidarity, freedom, equality and fraternity, that of living together in everyday life.”

The timing of the protests came just before the Constitutional Council decides on Thursday whether all articles in the law, passed by parliament in December, conform with the French constitution.

The law “was written under the dictate of the merchants of hate who dream of imposing on France their project of ‘national preference’,” wrote signatories of the call to march. The call added: “National preference, under which the French, not foreigners, should profit from the riches of the land, has long been the rallying cry of the far-right National Rally party.”

National Rally, under the leadership of Marine Le Pen, has welcomed the proposed new law. Speaking from the protest in Paris, French Communist Party national secretary Fabien Roussel said the march aimed to “cancel this inhumane law.”That way, the French Left and the French far right are in confrontation over this immigration proposal of President Macron. The outcome is important as Le Pen’s party’s main election plank for the June polls to European parliament is focused on deporting the foreigners. In fact, for all the right parties of Europe, this is the major election issue for European parliament. (IPA Service)