Some 100,000 Germans Protest Right-Wing Extremism in Duesseldorf

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Around 100,000 demonstrators took to the street of Duesseldorf in western Germany on Saturday to protest against right-wing extremism, according to police estimates.

"At the height [of the event], the police estimated the number of people at around 100,000 … There were sporadic violations of order, such as the use of firecrackers," police said in a statement.

The organizers expected some 30,000 people to attend the rally, which aimed to put pressure on the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Police chief Thorsten Fleiss said it was largely peaceful, although traffic disruption was significant.

Smaller rallies, numbering thousands of people, reportedly took place in other parts of the country, including in Aachen, Osnabrueck and Kiel. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, of the center-left Social Democratic Party, showed up in Osnabrueck to call for demonstrators to stand up for democracy.

The demonstrations come amid calls to ban AfD nationwide over its anti-immigration rhetoric. The domestic intelligence agency has labeled three AfD chapters — in Thuringia, Saxony and lately in Saxony-Anhalt — as "extremist." Two of the states face elections in 2024.

Despite the criticism, AfD continues to enjoy an ever-increasing popularity across the country, most prominently in the east. Polls put support for AfD at between 15% and 23%, making it the second most popular party after the conservative bloc.