Antifascism | Thousands protest against Höcke's appearance in Jena

The police used force to break up road blockades. Photo: Bodo Schackow/dpa Jena.  Thousands of people demonstrated in Jena on Tuesday against an appearance by Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke. The two alliances “Stop the Rightward Shift” and “Jena in Solidarity” called for a protest in the Lobeda-West district. According to initial estimates, the police assumed there were 3,000 participants, as a spokeswoman said on site. The “Stop the Rightward Shift” alliance spoke of 4,000.

Several street sit-ins were broken up with violence, according to a police statement after the event. According to the police, the operation was intended to ensure “the safety of all participants in the citizen dialogue” and “the person being protected.” It was also about “protecting and enabling freedom of assembly and expression.”

The “Stop the Rightward Shift” alliance said that the police had given Höcke access to the district center “using massive force against protesters.” Participants reported a “disproportionate use of pepper spray, batons and kicks against protesters.” 

Four officers were injured during the protest, the police said. Seven criminal offenses were recorded, including sabotage of the electricity distribution at the venue. Before the start, the power in the event hall went out, as a dpa reporter reported. 

In the evening, Höcke appeared at an AfD citizens' dialogue with the two state parliament members Elisabeth Mengel-Stähle and Denny Jankowski in the district center of Lobeda-West. The event started with a delay. Höcke gave his speech in semi-darkness without a microphone.

The speakers at the protest included state parliament member Katharina König-Preuss (left) and the director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau Dora Memorials Foundation, Jens Christian Wagner. The participants sang and shouted anti-fascist slogans such as “Defend yourself, resist fascism here in the country.”

A good two years ago, demonstrators prevented Höcke from appearing in Jena. A few days before the state elections in 2024, a public discussion with the AfD politician was also planned, but it had to be canceled at short notice "due to the large number of people and the confusing situation on site," as the police announced at the time.  dpa/nd

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