German far-left groups lead Berlin 'peace' demonstration
October 3, 2024
Thousands of protesters gathered on Thursday to protest the German government's stance on the war in Ukraine.
Supporters of the demonstration, under the banner of "Never Again War," held the protest on German Unity Day, the yearly holiday commemorating the 1990 reunification of Germany.
Protesters held up banners calling for diplomacy instead of war and demanding a halt to arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Some demonstrators also expressed solidarity with people in the Gaza Strip, with placards calling for an "end to the occupation terror."
Organizers said that "well over 40,000 people" attended the rally, while police declined to offer an exact estimate but said they numbered "in the low five figure range."
Berlin's police said early on Thursday evening that several protests and demonstrations including this one "have concluded without disturbance," reporting no major incidents, unrest or arrests.
Who was speaking?
Notable figures in German politics were scheduled to speak at the end of the march.
Chief among them is Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of the recently-formed Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) that split off from Germany's socialist Left Party and who recently became a major player in the east, capturing a significant share of the vote in elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg.
But the movement also lined up a pair of more moderate speakers and political veterans, the former deputy leader of Bavaria's conservative CSU, Peter Gauweiler, and lonstanding Social Democrat (SDP) foreign policy commentator Ralf Stegner. Stegner is still a member of the Bundestag parliament, Gauweiler left the chamber in 2015.
Calls for stop to weapons exports, and no more US missiles in Germany
The "Never Again War" movement says it wants Germany to halt all weapons exports to Ukraine and to Israel and to work towards cessations of fighting in the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Isolated members of the demonstration even held placards accusing NATO of "conducting genocide" in eastern Ukraine and in Gaza.
The group rejects arms deliveries to Ukraine and Israel, while also warning, without evidence, about an impending military draft in Germany.
They also reject the stationing of additional US missiles in Germany, planned for 2026.
They urge the government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Only 54 countries are signed up to this 2017 treaty, with no NATO members or nuclear powers party to it. It's not to be confused with the much older Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which Germany has signed and ratified, along with almost all UN member states.
Germany is not a nuclear power in its own right, but is widely understood to have had a small number of US warheads stationed in the country for decades.
jcg/msh (dpa, AFP)