Germany’s far-right AfD offers cash to travel to protest

BERLIN: The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany is offering some members money to go to a rally in Berlin where they will protest against mass migration and express their concerns about the future of Germany.

The AfD expects at least 2,500 people to attend the protest today under the motto “Germany’s future” and said demonstrators would wind their way through the centre of Berlin from the main train station to the Brandenburg Gate.

Counter-protests are expected using slogans such as: “Stop the hate. Stop the AfD”.

Left-wing website Exif published an e-mail in which Uwe Junge, leader of the AfD in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, offered the first 30 members in the region who

€ come forward 50 (RM227) to subsidise their travel to the rally.

AfD spokesman Robin Classen confirmed the contents of the e-mail, saying the AfD there had considered chartering a bus, as other parties typically do for events or demonstrations, but decided against that because its members were spread around the state.

“It’s a round trip of 1,200km, so it’s a half day of travelling – this isn’t a payment for demonstrating – it’s basically a drop in the ocean to make the journey possible or easier for people,” Classen said.

He said members would need to prove they had attended the demonstration – such as by sending in a photograph of themselves there with Junge.

At a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday, Steffen Koeniger, a lawmaker for the AfD in the eastern state of Brandenburg who is helping to organise the demonstration, said AfD members did not need to be given money to attend.

Georg Pazderski, a member of the AfD’s executive board, told reporters that Germany could no longer afford mass migration, needed to close its borders and be more rigorous in deporting people.

He said that he was also concerned about other issues such as pensions, security on the streets and organised crime.