AfD marchers ‘blown away’ by techno

BERLIN: Supporters of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party marched through central Berlin to protest against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government on Sunday, and were kept away from a raft of counterdemonstrations by a heavy police presence.

Police said over 5,000 people turned out for the demonstration organised by the anti-migration Alternative for Germany, known by its German acronym AfD. A variety of counter-protests against the far right attracted well over 25,000 people in total, they said.

The AfD event opened with German flags, placards such as “No Islam in Germany’’ and chants of “Merkel must go’’ outside Berlin’s central train station. The party’s supporters then marched to the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Opponents chanted “Nazis out’’ from the other side of the monument.

Some of the counter-protesters took to rafts on the Spree river, within sight of the train station. Groups organising protests against AfD included artists and a coalition of Berlin music clubs hoping to “blow away’’ the party with loud techno beats.

About 2,000 police officers were in place to prevent trouble, including reinforcements from other parts of Germany. The march concluded without significant trouble.

AfD won 12.6% of the vote to enter Germany’s national parliament last year on anti-migrant and anti-establishment sentiment. It is now the largest of four opposition parties after the country’s two biggest parties finally agreed to continue a centrist “grand coalition’’ under Ms Merkel earlier this year.

Its march on Sunday was headlined as “Germany’s Future’’. An AfD regional leader, Andreas Kalbitz, proclaimed that “this is a signal’’ and argued that it shows “AfD is the centre of society’’.

Meanwhile, prominent AfD lawmaker Beatrix von Storch said “the vital question for us is: freedom or Islamisation?’’