Thousands protested in Berlin on Tuesday evening against Chancellor Friedrich Merz, amid growing public criticism of his perceived anti-migrant and racist rhetoric.
More than 7,500 protesters, mostly young women, gathered at Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party headquarters to express their outrage over his controversial "cityscape" remarks last week, in which he claimed that migrants and refugees harmed the physical appearance of German towns.
After receiving immediate criticism, Merz doubled down on his remarks Monday, urging people to "ask your daughters" what he meant.
Some have criticized this as racist because it implies that immigrant men are more likely to commit sexual harassment or other crimes, which is simply not supported by data.
Luisa Neubauer, Germany's most prominent climate activist, who organized the rally, told the rally that Merz's statements "are nothing but unacceptable, discriminatory, and comprehensively racist."
She had previously written on Instagram, saying: "We are plus or minus 40 million daughters in this country. We have a genuine interest in our security being addressed. What we absolutely do not want is to be used as a pretext or justification for statements that were, in essence, simply discriminatory, racist, and comprehensively hurtful."
Demonstrators held up signs that said, "Racism is a problem in the cityscape," "Daughters for a colorful cityscape," and "We don't have a cityscape problem; we have a racism problem."
The crowd also chanted, "We, we, we are the cityscape," and "We, we, we are the daughters" were also heard.
Meanwhile, Merz’s junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), also slammed the chancellor for his statements.
"With his comments on the cityscape, the Chancellor is using the wrong tone. He is pandering to a 'foreigners out' sentiment, offering no solutions, and thus causing social unrest," SPD lawmaker Ralf Stegner told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Merz's comments also "do not contribute to improving the mood within the coalition," as many at the SPD base were "appalled by the chancellor's words," he added.
