About 25,000 people braved the rain in Munich on Sunday to protest the immigration stance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies three months before they face a tough state election in Bavaria.
The protest is another sign of the Christian Social Union’s (CSU) waning popularity after an Infratest poll published last week put its support in Bavaria at 38 percent, compared with the 47.7 percent it secured in a 2013 regional election.
March organizers said in a statement they were demonstrating against the “irresponsible divisive politics” of top members of the CSU, which governs Bavaria and is the sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
Photo: AP
They mentioned CSU leader and German Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer and CSU Bavarian State Premier Markus Soeder and said they were taking a stand against a “politics of fear.”
Seehofer’s immigration stance nearly brought down Merkel’s government earlier this month in a dispute over migration.
Seehofer is trying to bolster his party in the vote, in which the CSU faces a stiff challenge.
Seehofer last week deflected blame for the suicide of an Afghan man among a group deported to Kabul after opponents called for his resignation for boasting that the deportations took place on his birthday.
“I want to speak out against the inhuman statements that have recently come to light from leading CSU politicians,” said Axel Weingaertner, one of the demonstrators. “It’s unacceptable.”
Numerous groups, including the Social Democrats — junior partner to the conservatives in the federal governing coalition — the Greens, civil society organizations, church groups and groups of volunteers who work with refugees had urged people to join the demonstration.
Police estimated the number who took part.
The CSU said on Twitter that the protest was “political agitation,” adding: “The people in Bavaria know what they have in the CSU.”
The Infratest dimap poll showed support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the prosperous southern state at 12 percent. The AfD — which has seen its popularity soar after an influx of 1.6 million migrants since mid-2014 — is expected to enter the state parliament there for the first time in October.
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