From antifascist mass protests to demands of banning the AfD to climate strikes: while the far-right resurges, one can witness a growing civic movement in Halle. Accompanied by fundamental political transitions on the national level, the following visual review recaps over a year between protest and political watershed moments.
January 20th 2024
Around 16,000 people flocked to the August-Bebel-Platz for a protest captioned “Resisting the Shift to the Right – in Solidarity. in Diversity. Democratically.” It ended up being the biggest political protest in Halle since the German reunification. It was organized in response to an investigative report uncovering a meeting between AfD politicians and right-wing extremists in Potsdam.
September 14th 2024
CSD pride parade and street festival in Halle (Saale). The festival took place at the town square. A counter protest organised by neo-Nazis was stopped at their initial gathering place at Halle main station.
November 6th 2024
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) fired Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (FDP) due to insurmountable differences surrounding economic and budget policies. This led to the dissolving of the traffic light coalition.
January 16th 2025
Election campaign. (Then) Leader of the liberal FDP Christian Lindner also stops in Halle while on his campaign tour. The audience? Seemed to be split evenly between FDP voters, journalists, and counter protestors.
January 25th 2025
Circa 9000 people attended the protest titled “Stop the AfD – Stop the Normalisation of the Right”, with which they rallied against the kickoff of the AfD election campaign, which took place in the halls of the Halle-Messe.
February 1st 2025
Protest against the cooperation of the conservative CDU and far-right AfD in the national parliament with over 8000 attendants. Under the motto of “Firewall? No Cooperation With the AfD – Defend Democracy and Human Rights!” it was organized by the coalition “Halle Against the Right”.
February 9th 2025
With only two weeks left until the national election, the campaigns rage on. Destroyed election posters can be found from every party.
February 9th and 10th 2025
Protest against an AfD campaign event in Merseburg. The hosting restaurant ironically bears the name “Solidarity Merseburg”. A few events of protests also sprung up in the city of Leipzig. Those were also attended by Halle citizens.
February 14th 2025
Organized by Fridays For Future, nationwide climate strikes remind us that the issue of the climate crisis has not lost importance since the election campaigns three years ago. People concerned about the environment also took to the streets in Halle.
February 23rd 2025
Early election day. The CDU/CSU won with 28,5 %, followed by the AfD with 20,8 %. The social-democratic SPD received 16,4 %, the Greens 11,6 %, and the Left 8,8 % of the votes. The FDP and BSW failed at the 5 % hurdle.
March 8th 2025
“Friedrich Merz Is Not Our Chancellor,” was stated at International Women’s Day. Several rallies in town campaigned for women’s rights under the motto “The Shame Needs to Switch Sides”.
May 1st 2025
As every year, the traditional Labor Day protests also took place in Halle, the main one organised by the Federation of German Trade Unions with the slogan “Stand Up For and With Us!”
May 6th 2025
Friedrich Merz (CDU) got elected as the tenth Chancellor after a historic second voting round.
May 11th 2025
Demands for banning the AfD become louder. In Halle, 700 people assembled to protest right-wing extremism after the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution released a report classing the AfD as secured right-wing extremist, a ruling which was then suspended again on May 8th. At the time of the editorial deadline, the situation so far remained unchanged.
Text and photos: Tom Roeloffzen
Translation: Ellen Helmecke