Thousands of people protest in Germany against the rise of the AfD after its victory in Saxony-Anhalt

Several tens of thousands of people demonstrated this Saturday in the large cities of Germany in rejection of the rise of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which won the regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt a week ago and thus has a chance of governing a Land for the first time.

In Berlin, between 13,000 and 14,000 people converged starting at 1 p.m. through seven different marches in a central rally in front of City Hall, according to data provided to Efe by the Police, which deployed 1,800 officers for the occasion.

"The elections in Saxony-Anhalt have to be a turning point, if we want to stop the AfD," read the call, launched by a platform of almost 100 organizations, citizen initiatives and unions.

"The cordon sanitaire must be maintained and unconditionally. No cooperation with AfD, anywhere," they stressed, alluding to the refusal of the rest of the parties to ally themselves with the extreme right, although in Saxony-Anhalt the populist left alliance BSW is negotiating an abstention to make the investiture possible.

In Düsseldorf, in the populous western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, approximately 20,000 people took to the streets, according to the Police, while in Hamburg (north), the protest had not yet concluded, so the authorities did not yet want to confirm the figure of 25,000 protesters provided by the organizers.

In Leipzig (east), 5,000 people demonstrated according to the organizers and slogans such as "All against fascism" were chanted, according to videos of the event broadcast on social networks.

In Munich (south), the protest called had the objective of urging the Constitutional Court to study the need to outlaw all parties that are classified as confirmed or suspected cases of extremism, a category the latter encompasses the AfD structure at the federal level, and brought together several thousand, according to the images.

The demonstrations are also expected to continue on Sunday, when the far-right force will celebrate its closing campaign in Berlin, ahead of the regional elections to be held in the city-state next weekend.

In the German capital, the AfD is expected to come in third place, behind the Left and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), very far from the results obtained in Saxony-Anhalt.