#fckafd (Apr, 2017)

Yesterday, by far the largest demonstration against a political convention of a German party took place in Cologne. The far-right “Alternative für Deutschland” (“Alternative for Germany”, AfD) held its congress in the Maritim Hotel in Cologne to prepare for the forthcoming Bundestag elections. For Cologne, a cosmopolitan and tolerant city, this was a provocation that their citizens did not want to accept. Several demonstrations took place against the AfD on that day (“Köln gegen Rechts“, “Köln stellt sich quer“, “Bunt statt Bla“, “Mir all sin Kölle“). Thousands of people celebrated a peaceful and cheerful party against the agitation, exclusion and retrogressivity of the AfD with loud, colorful and partly carnival-styled demonstrations across the city. Less than the 50,000 announced demonstrators participated, but this does not matter: More than 10,000 demonstrators were at Heumarkt, the central meeting point of the demonstrations, within sight to the conference hotel. It was an impressive sign of the civil society against hatred and resentment of a misdirected and embittered minority.