Thousands protested again outside the CDU headquarters in Berlin against Chancellor Friedrich Merz's controversial statements on migration policy. Police counted 2,000 participants, while organizers reported 7,500. The rally under the motto 'We are the daughters' criticized Merz's reference to a 'problem in the cityscape'.
Protests against Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) continued to intensify. On Tuesday evening, demonstrators gathered outside the CDU headquarters in Berlin, with police estimating around 2,000 and organizers 7,500 participants. The alliance 'Together Against the Right' called for the feminist rally under the motto 'We are the daughters.' Protesters carried signs with slogans like 'Racism is a problem in the cityscape,' 'Daughters for a colorful cityscape,' and 'We have no cityscape problem, but a racism problem.' They chanted 'We, we, we are the cityscape' and 'We, we, we are the daughters.'
The trigger was Merz's statement from early last week on migration policy: 'But we naturally still have this problem in the cityscape, and that's why the interior minister is also working to enable and carry out returns on a large scale.' On Monday, Merz rejected criticism: 'I have nothing to retract.' When asked by a journalist what he meant, he said: 'If you ask your daughters, you will probably get a pretty clear and distinct answer on what I meant by my statements.'
Environmental activist Luisa Neubauer criticized at the rally: 'Where we are not willing to go along, it is cited as an excuse, misused as justification, for statements that are nothing other than unacceptable, discriminatory, and comprehensively racist.'
Already on Sunday evening, there had been a rally at the Brandenburg Gate with hundreds of participants under the motto 'Firewall up! We are the cityscape,' demanding diversity and accusing Merz of insufficient distancing from the AfD.
CDU politician Armin Laschet called Merz's statement 'too nebulous' and warned that the AfD could profit by using the 'cityscape' as a benchmark in the next Bundestag election. Left party leader Heidi Reichinnek accused Merz of instrumentalizing women for 'pure racism': 'When women walk home alone at night, they are not afraid of migrants, they are afraid of men.' Greens politician Misbah Khan emphasized: 'The most dangerous place for women is their own home,' and demanded more places in women's shelters – 12,000 are missing in Germany.