Protesters March in Berlin against Merkel's Open door Migrant Policy
Date
11/8/2015 9:24:41 AM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Protesters against the German government's open-door migrant policy marched in Berlin on Saturday in a rally organised by the Euroscepticanti-immigrationAlternative forGermany(AfD) party.
Counter-demonstrations in support ofmigrantsalso took place in the streets of Berlin with pro-migrant activists clashing withanti-immigrationprotesters and police. About 40 people were arrested.
Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) a populist-nationalist party which isn’t represented in the German parliament has seats in several regional legislatures. It rejects Chancellor AngelaMerkel's welcoming approach to refugees.
Protesters carried banners reading "StopMerkel saveGermany" and chanted 'Merkelmust go' and 'Traitor to the people'. They called for the immediate closure of German borders under the banner ‘Asylum has its limits – red card forMerkel’.
Counter-protesters shouted 'Nazis out!' and carried banners reading 'AfD get lost' and 'Refugees welcome'.
Scuffles broke out after police dispersed a sit-in by counter-demonstrators some of whom tried to break through the barriers separating them from the protesters.
About5000 people took part in theanti-immigrationmarch and 800 in counter-demonstrations according to police estimates. Police deployed 1100 officers to prevent clashes and used pepper spray to prevent clashes between the rival demonstrators.
Some 758000 asylum-seekers arrived inGermanyin the first 10 months of the year.Germanyfaces a record influx of up to one millionmigrantsthis year amid Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.
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