2024–2025 German anti-extremism protests

In early 2024, widespread protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party took place in Germany, after a report by investigative journalist group Correctiv revealed the presence of in-office party members at the meeting of right-wing extremists at Potsdam in 2023, centered on "remigration" proposals to organize mass deportations of foreign-born Germans, including those with German citizenship. Protesters have "sought", as declared by the organizers, to "defend the German democracy from the AfD", with many protesters calling for the party to be investigated by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or banned altogether. This wave of protests became the largest civil society protest movement of the postwar period. A second protest wave erupted in early 2025, shortly before the federal election held on 23 February, after Friedrich Merz and the CDU pushed through a proposal to tighten immigration policy with the AfD. This sparked outrage and demand for the Brandmauer to be upheld.