Transcription
All right, guys, there are lots of Germans to come out today to make their voices heard a day before the polls open tomorrow. Since the collapse of Germany's coalition government, demonstrations like this have divided the nation. In my mind, with a snap general election called in November, nationalism is on the rise, and with it the growing influence of the AfD, led by Alice Weidel. The party positions itself as Germany's hope to save the country. Germany has been plagued with terror attacks. Just last week, an Afghan asylum seeker ran over protesters in Munich, and the night before filming this, news broke of a stabbing in Berlin ahead of the election. Polls predicted the AfD would gain the second-highest share of votes. Their rise and popularity have been fueled by their strong stance on migration, promising to put German citizens first and keep the country terror-free. However, they're not welcome by everyone. Earlier this month, thousands of Germans took to the streets of Berlin, protesting what they see as the rise of the far right. So I went to Berlin to see firsthand what's really going on.
Join me right now; we're with an Antifa, more leftist protest, but there are protests happening all around today, and it looks like it's just about kicking off down here. Let's check it out. What's your reason for coming today? "Uh, protest against the AfD and every far-right movement in Germany." Yeah. What's your concern with these far-right movements that are happening in Germany at the minute? "The erosion of democracy and the return of an age we had in Germany before; we don't want anymore." And a lot of talk from AfD and these right-wing parties is that to close the borders. Would you agree with that right now? "If I would agree with closing the borders, yeah, or protecting the borders as they like to say? No, I would not agree with that, no." Previously, Germany had open borders. Is that the way forward for Germany? Is that what they should do? "Definitely. It's European, right? It's German, right? We, we should have learned our lesson. Half of these countries consist of people who have been refugees within the last 250 years or so, so we should have learned our lesson, and that shutting borders down is never an option if you want to stand for human rights. The first article of our constitution is that the… menas… sorry, I don't know how to say it in English. And if we want to be held by this, then we shouldn't close our borders." And a lot of talk at the minute has been about the terrorist attacks. I mean, how can you just reduce those just in general? It seems a growing problem at the minute. "Education and psychological support for those people because the people who come here are traumatized, obviously. Yeah, if you come over the Mediterranean Sea or if you come through the Balkans, uh, it's kind of survival of the fittest already, so the people who end up here end up being here traumatized, and we don't take care of them. So, so more tax money being spent on, yeah, integrating people rather than excluding them." Yes, definitely. We need those people; we need those people here because we have fewer and fewer people who are being born in this country, and if you want to keep going, we need people coming here and working here. Why not help those people who are already here and who are coming?
So a bit of the talk I've heard so far is that the other side are Nazis and they want to protect these kind of right-wing parties coming into Germany. This is meant to be so-called the peaceful side, as one of the guys told me, but it's filling up the street. We're not sure if anything will kick off, but let's wait and see. It seems like uh, the protest has come down to another checkpoint now, but yeah, a lot of people have come out today. It's only quite early on; early days in the protest. More, I'm sure, will come out a bit later, but there's lots of different flags; you'll see different, a lot of signs here today as well: anti-fascist flags and obviously the LGBTQ flags as well, people flying. But the people I've spoken to so far just are very discontented about how the country has run. They're talking about the economy and how difficult it is to live for your average German, and they don't tend to blame migrants for those issues. Check it out. The right-wing parties like AfD says to close the border. Do you agree with this, with the position of the AfD to close the border? "Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I don't agree with for closing the borders." Why? Why? "Because I think it's a human right to move and migrant, uh, and also the people have a reason why they go to Europe because they don't have a perspective in the places where we come from, and a lot of problems we have there it's based on unfair economical structures; world trade, for example, which is still very unfair."
As you can see, guys, there's a couple hundred just here. There's a guy on the megaphone giving some sort of speech, but been trying to get a lot of interviews; so far, not many people want to talk, or they can't speak English. So I think what we're going to do is going to have a wander around and see a couple of the other protests, but this is very much the Antifa protest just here. I just left the other protest and I've come to one just around the corner. I think this is where more the right side are, but here you see a lot of… a lot of people… be-clad… oh, there's stuff going on here. Let's have a look. Seems like they're blocked off the road. Wow, check it out, guys. Oh, this guy's not welcome here. Oh, oh, I'm pushing him away; there are like five guys on one, one dude. Oh, they punched his face. Wow, bro. "You come to Berlin?" "Yeah, first time." "First time, bro?" "Racist lives don't matter." That sh… pick… so… wow, guys, this is what's happening in Berlin; nothing, nothing like we seen down in London. So I've just seen one guy punched in the face for coming over to this side. Got like a blockade, and some girls got a… a horn… a beagle, I think. On the other side is going to be the right-wing protesters, the fascists as they like to say. People all sat down here. The police are pushing someone. Police are telling everyone to hold the line. Wow, guys, I've never seen this. This… match… police… who… he's getting the batons out. They're saying to stand back. Well, guys, we're right on the, on the front lines here. I don't really get what's going on because I'm kind of in the middle, and uh… who… SI… are here. "Is it okay?" "Huh? What happened? Why are you pushing?" "Because he's ago and crazy." "Okay, okay." "Will the police hit the people if they… for no reason here?" "Yeah, they don't care; they don't care." Wow. "Berlin Police is just another level." Yeah. "What have you seen so far? What's been happening?" "Um, the neo-Nazis just, uh, arrived here. Yeah, the police, uh, just, yeah, clear the road for them, push away the, the people that are blocking them." "Do you think there's a lot of police here because of what happened last night, the stabbing in Berlin?" "There's more police here today? Uh, no, I don't think so; just for the protest. Yeah, the police just is protecting Nazis here, like always." Yeah. Oh [Music]. Okay, okay. As you can see, guys, they've got the, the batons out, and they're going to form another line. They're sitting down. Oh, man, they're all coming; they're all coming. Whoa, guys. One guy's getting dragged. All… guys, I'm just standing here; I'm not, you know, interfering or anything. Police are pushing them away. Wow, it's all kicking off. They're holding arms, as you can see, locking arms on the ground, and they sort of just grabbed anyone they can. They're going over here. Let's have a look. I don't think anyone is actually doing something wrong; I think they're just trying to keep the crowds together, make sure nothing does kick off. Another thing going, guys, it's all kicking off. I don't know where to look. More [Music]. Pushing. They're blocking them in the corner. Oh, one, one getting pushed in the corner there. I think this is just like crowd control; they're not really causing any trouble; they're making sure they stay where they are. One lad running over. Wow. Just turn my back and look how many police are here now; so many. I'm not sure how crazy these protests do get, but obviously this much police, I don't think we've seen this much police since what happened in London over the summer. "Why do you sit on the floor?" "Um, because we don't want, uh, fascists to walk in our streets." "Why did the police get so angry when you sit on the floor?" "Because they, uh, defend, defend the… fascists, really." I think this is like the hack: just walk around the camera and hopefully no one bothers you, because everyone else I've seen just kind of gets corralled into corners. He still got the group over there, the flags; they can't move, and then you got the police blocking off this little road here. Oh, okay. So it looks like they've just captured someone; he's getting brought in, maybe arrested. Just one dude over here. On… let me get closer so you guys can see it. I think it's a boy or a girl; I have no idea. Yes, so one lad's getting arrested here; bring his head down. Check it [Music] out. So one arrest we've seen so far, and obviously this is the left side; it's not the, um, not the right side; they're on the other side of the street. But yeah, straight into the van, and he goes. Wow. So yeah, this is what's happening in Germany; one arrest so far. Obviously, the numbers aren't as big as what you tend to see in London, but there are a lot, a lot of police, and it's definitely much more heated than what we're used to. Very interesting atmosphere here. Um, I think it's a very aggressive atmosphere this moment from both, um, people here. Yeah. "Why do you think it's got very angry? Everyone's very aggressive. Yeah, why do you think that is?" "I think, uh, tomorrow is the… v… v… yeah, election. Yeah, and they think tomorrow is… is very interesting. Yeah, very important for Germany, isn't it? And I think, um, he is very aggressive atmosphere and, uh, yeah, yeah, it, it, it's, uh, yeah…" I don't know. A lot of people on the right would say to close the borders and, you know, stop illegal people coming to the country. Do you agree with this? "I think for… war, I think it's okay, but nothing for… don't… to… money or so. Yeah, only come in illegally to Germany; they want to have a work here in Germany, and then they, they are welcome. I think so, sure. Yeah, pay taxes, help, help the country; it's good. But they come to… going with a knife or so. Yeah, yeah, we saw yesterday in Berlin. Yeah, that's, it's not good. I think we… all people… yeah, people…" Okay, thank you. So yeah, kind of things you're hearing in… in England, in Portugal, doesn't matter where you are; people, you're for it, or you're against it, or somewhere in between where you say, hey, these people can come in, but then, you know, pay taxes, integrate, and things like this. Um, yeah, it's opinion that's divided the country, divided Europe, and that's what's been debated for these elections. Migration has been such a hot topic, and that's why people are saying over this side, "Refugees welcome," or the usual kind of rhetoric you tend to hear, but that's why it's created so much, so much divide here in Berlin today.
As you can see behind me, people are still sitting down, but this gives you just an idea of the amount of police presence. We're going to go to the other side. Apparently, you're meant to have some sort of press card, but I'm just going to wing it and hold the camera and just pretend I'm part of the press. But wow, look at the amount of, you know, police vans and everything on this side. I wasn't able to talk to the left that much; they were, most of them didn't want to say anything on camera, as you saw; a lot of them have balaclavas, that sort of thing; they don't want to kind of express their opinion. But the few I did speak to, they said there are bigger problems other than migration. And as we come to this side now, I just see a couple German flags, which is typical on any protest that I go to, you know; this had a very much have the national flag, whereas the other side tend to have LGBTQ flags instead. I guess this side is more nationalist, as they do like to say. Let's go check it out. Wow, definitely more on this side; I'd say definitely a lot more. Got one lady with flowers saying, "Fight anti-Semitism." Wow, so they're completely blocked. So you've got, you've got guys on this side, and then you've got another protest just above it, just over there. So yeah, let's, let's see if we can speak to some of them, hear what they have to say, why they're here. This will be more the, the right-wing kind of argument and perspective. "The other side call you guys Nazis, neo-Nazis, this kind of thing. How does it make you feel?" "No Nazis… kind of Nazis… he is no Nazis. Yeah, he is democratic people. Uh, the Nazis is another side; the fascists is another side. We are democratic people from Germany." Yeah. "Would you agree… do you agree with Alice Weidel and CDU saying close the borders? Do you think Germany should close its borders?" "Yeah, of course; they must. Why? Illegal immigration; it has to stop." Yeah. "People on the other side should say we should welcome them; these are peaceful people; the government should help them come to Germany and become German. What do you think about this?" "The land is open; it's free to… to live your own life; it's okay, but when you are making these… uh… crimes… yeah, crimes… right, crimes… these crimes, it's… we don't understand this."
Guys, it's pretty impressive; look at it. The whole of Berlin is pretty divided. You've got the police and riot police on this side, and then just behind me, you've got the nationalists who are over here. Stuck in the middle. I've been trying to get a couple into some people here and there, but everyone's actually bottled up; no one wants to reveal their identity; who knows what's, uh, what's going to happen a bit later. But yeah, no one pretty much wants to talk at the minute. It seems like the process is just moving forward now. The police have given the go-ahead; they've cleared the road a bit, but a lot of the… CH… I've heard… or got them translated by some Germans; they said people who come to Germany should love Germany; a rough translation. So these are really the, the German patriots here. Okay, police is running; I don't know why they're running, but someone's on the run, so we kept them here. You've got anti-fascists just behind me, now shouting, "Nazis!" I wonder if someone's going to break the police line; let's wait and see. Someone's got a sign says, "Refugees not welcome; bring your families home." This woman's come over. Whoa, look at this guy. Wow, it's getting heated; very heated. I have no idea what they're saying, but while it is getting very heated, the police are keeping them here. Bit of shoving as well. Let's have a look; it's got pushed by someone… 6'3" giant… everyone trying to break the police lines, as [Applause] well. Wow. You just feel how angry everyone is; usual stuff of the swearing. Yeah, I don't think anyone's going to be in the mood to talk; that's for sure. Please… yeah, they're going to block them here. The police calls… come [Applause] forward. Everyone giving the fingers. Guys, I don't know where the protest is going to go, but the police are encouraging them to move [Music] [Applause] down. Wherever you look, something is happening [Music]. The police trying to get ahead, keep control of the protest. I think what's going to happen is that the Antifa protest will literally just kind of follow this one, so any kind of crossroads they, they find the police, uh, they'll go there. The police are running; at least they're faster than the British police. Look at this, guys. But I think like the whole of Germany's… Germany's police are around today. Wow, must be over 100 police, surely. Look at it; he's on the camera as well. Imagine if this happened in England. This is just literally a day before the… I can't imagine what's been happening the past couple weeks in Germany. One guy being protected by like five officers; uh, I don't know if he's an Antifa guy, just watching him. Wow, no… jumping up and down like football. Everyone is saying, "Nazis, Nazis," all thing over here.
At the time, this was the final push before the election, on the streets. AfD supporters may have seemed like a minority, unwelcome in Berlin, but now with the results in, we know that in East Germany, support for their AfD was far stronger than it appeared here in Berlin. This is really how divided Germany is becoming, though. As I was saying, everyone out today, you have these kind of typical stereotypes that, you know, one side is Nazis, one side is racist, and the other side kind of want anyone and everyone to come into the country. These kind of opinions are really dividing the nation. "Do protests usually get this heated in Germany?" "Um, yeah. Well, if Nazis start being…" Yeah, yeah. "What… why is the talk about Nazis and fascism? I mean, why did that opinion kind of get built up?" "Um, well, if you ask me, uh, basically neoliberalism in Germany, the poor are getting poorer, and it's getting more… you know, richer… getting rich… people getting richer, and the youth… nobody cares about the youth. It has to do with… man… hood… these… these people are basically all… sorry… Eastern Germany, yeah, and they're… well, there's… they are more males than females, and also that's from a sociologist, um, it's traditional toxic masculinity, and they don't… they can't comprehend that women, um, now have a place in society; that makes them very angry and revert to old stuff, basically fascism, which isn't as bad, and it's always bad, but in Germany is the worst, 'cause Germany's like a… dry colleague when it comes to that." Yeah. I've had a lot of talk, especially, way talk about men, migration, and the refugees that have been coming to Germany; the majority will be men. Is there a security risk at the moment with who's in the country and who goes out of the country? Obviously, we had a terror attack yesterday in Berlin. "Oh, no, no, no; that's absolutely made up by conservatives; that's basically nothing. The, the majority of people committing crimes are the Germans here; it's basically for, uh, well, basically rich people to divert your attention that you hate foreigners; that's basically it; it's a really cheap media strategy; has worked since '33." Do you believe closing the borders is racist? "Uh, of course, yeah. I mean, be… use… therefore reason that wars don't start and with these people, wars will start again, especially when Trump now and Putin are basically, you know, unreliable dictator… you know, uh, Europe has to stand up, and closing the borders doesn't solve any issue; not any…" Obviously, there are other issues; Ukraine. You mentioned the economy, but if you just look at specific the migrant issue, do you think having some kind of regulation of who comes in will help Germany in some sense? "Well, uh, yeah, we have to get more in because when it comes now to basically the pension funds, you'd have to get 400,000 people a year in; that's the official statistics, what says to keep the, the pension fund system up. So yeah, there has to be a reform; a lot of more people have to come if old people aren't going to be really poor, which they already are; second poorest demographic here after very young people." Yeah. And in general, a lot of Germans are leaving; I mean, the demographic is going down. "Why do you think that is?" "Go… Germany is a cheerless place, isn't it? I mean, you know, I mean, today it's, it's sunny and nice, but Germany is not a fun place, is it? I mean, come on." So obviously yesterday we saw the terror attack in Berlin again; they said it was, I think it was a Syrian migrant. What are your opinions on that? "Um, I'm really disappointed that the left are still not waking up; still demonstrating against the right; we are not the enemy. It's just sad what they're doing to us, and we're just watching." Why do you think that the left and the right can't agree on migration, for example, like, you know, the CDU said they should protect the borders to some extent? Why do you think Germany aren't agreeing on this? "Um, because the left like to, um, think more about the feelings than rather facts, because we're more focused on what's rational, and they're more focused on what's, uh, benefiting their… they're saying that migrants come to Germany, they never get sent into prison, then never anything happens to them, which is clearly a lie; factually it's a lie; they just popularized things." I mean, AfD and obviously like Donald Trump has been very involved with Germany, Elon Musk… they call for mass deportations. Would you agree with that? "No, not really. No, I don't get the… um… deportation…" Let's say an Afghan commits a crime in Germany. Yeah, imagine if you just give him back to Afghanistan. "In that situation, in the worst-case scenario, he will be set free there. If somebody commits a crime in Germany, he will be sentenced in Germany and serve time in Germany, and then we can deport him. It, it depends on, um, if you have like agreements like countries to Turkey, you know, if they can, uh, continue to sentence in that country. Okay, that's fine. Okay, I can live with that, but we can't send people back to Afghanistan for a crime they commit in Germany, and they will be set free there. That, that's fine; fair enough." Say, for example, the Afghan migrant was illegal, didn't come here with a visa; should he then be deported, 'cause there's an argument that the taxpayer is funding him in prison? "It really depends on a situation; if he has to, uh, fear for his life in Afghanistan, you know, if, if he's like a… if, if he helped the German army, the Bundes… you know, if he helped them back in the days and he came to Germany without a visa, clearly he should stay if he's fearful for his life back in Afghanistan, but if he came here legally, in that case, yeah, we should deport him if there's like no reason why he's here in that case. Yeah, but if, if he has a reason, if he has a fear, he's a human being; he has the right to stay here." The best of the best; I hope, uh, the migration stuff, uh, gets better, and if not, I'll probably move to Poland or somewhere.
Those on the left say that, you know, welcome everyone, but do you think the ones who are already here, they should be integrated? The government should do more to help them, maybe learn the language or the culture? "I mean, I, um, my opinion is you can't put two cultures together and mash them up; it's going to get conflicted. I, uh, studied a bit of Islam and of, uh, Judaism, also Christianity; I'm a Christian myself, and most parts of their religion don't, uh, fit well together, especially Judaism because they hate Jesus because they think he's a hypocrite, but the people from Islam believe he's a prophet. There are certain books in Islam; not everybody believes them, like the… they called it… it's Muslim, and they believe women should be beaten if they don't agree with sex, and they're worth as much as a dog or a donkey, and you can't put that in a Christian society. Let's say someone's from Syria, from Afghanistan or something, and a Christian; I love to have them here if they benefit to society; I'd accept them openly, but if they come here and ruin their chance, they have no right to be here." And as a German right now, what's your main concern for the country currently? "It's, uh, basically because I live in Berlin, it's the rent crisis we have in Berlin. We are not building a lot of apartments; we have many people moving in here from all around Germany; everybody wants to move to Germany, and I, I talked to a bunch of people, and they all have the same issues; they, they can't find a place to stay; they can't find a place to live in; the work they do, they don't get paid enough, you know, to have affordable living, you know, and that, that's clearly my one of my highest issues, and I have a major problem with the right-wing rise we have currently in Germany because, uh, because myself, my parents are Turkish; they have Turkish background, and I, I, I live here in Germany; I work here; I have a 40-hour week; I work here, and people like them like to do it; they say, oh, I'm also one of them; deport me for like… like the past three generations…" Like I'm…
Living here, I work here, and the people on the very far right on the AfD are saying that people like me should leave this country, which is clearly ridiculous. Say it loud, say it clear: refugees are welcome here.
Looks like most of them are going to go get the train home. I'm there; there's another AfD protest, so we can go check that out. Uh, just to close the video, but look how many there are, all on the train. We're getting on the train back home. I'm not sure if the majority were Berlin locals, but what an eventful process this one was. It took over the whole street, and the amount of police needed to look after them.
Why don't you like the people that were here today?
They're Nazis.
Yeah, what they think about is very extreme; it's too much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like racist, anti-LGBTQ, and it's just, I think this is not uh the best for our country because I think there's an election in two days, and they were here to to set a sign, but we wanted to set a sign against Nazis, against hate, against far-right that rise all over Europe and splits the nation. And right now it's a time where we all have to to stand together, and this is not my opinion how the world should work.
Yeah, do you think right now Germany is very divided then because of this?
Uh, yeah, yeah, unfortunately, yes. But as a city, Berlin is very left, isn't it?
Yeah, it's it's difficult because in some districts they are very left, and some districts they are very right, and sometimes these districts meet each other, and then there's always a big clash and boxing, and always police.
The plan after was to head to an official AfD rally, but heavy traffic made that impossible. Instead, I found some other protests happening around the city. So guys, I made my way round to this protest over here. There's another one, uh, like a union protest that's been going on, but wasn't able to get in. So that's just how many protests have been happening in Berlin today. I think I've seen about five or six already. There's one just by the gate, and there's a Ukraine one just on the other side. I've just walked around, um, but yeah, haven't we been out to speak to that many people, because obviously how heated these protests got, a lot of people don't want to uh show their face, or they couldn't speak English. But yeah, not the end of the world, but it would have been good to get a few more opinions. But just going to go a few yards down to the Holocaust Memorial and just check it out, obviously after the attack that happened yesterday. So let's go see that.
The police have just opened up the gates of the Holocaust Memorial, literally the first time since yesterday after someone was stabbed here. Turns out to be a Syrian refugee; yet again, another kind of attack, terrorist attack, happening on German streets and just coming here. This is literally not something you expect to find in a tourist spot like this, especially the the deep meaning behind what is the Holocaust Memorial. Really sad. But it doesn't matter what side you're on, the left or the right, you literally now cannot ignore the issues that are happening in Germany or within Europe. These attacks by unknown aliens coming into countries unvetted; you don't know if they have a knife, what they're bringing in, and they're causing these sorts of crimes. Obviously, there's an argument that German citizens do commit crimes, but we're not seeing them commit these kind of terrorist attacks, mass killings that we're seeing. And yeah, speaking to the German people today, a lot of them didn't want to be on camera, but those on the left were saying, you know, everyone's welcome, and those on the right were saying, you know, have some control at least. Uh, some on the more extreme side were saying all of them need to go back. But whatever side you're on, there's some issues that you literally cannot ignore. And tomorrow's election, I guess this was one of the arguments: migration, can they protect the borders, can they protect German citizens? And last night was just another example and inf fuel to the fire. But this was Berlin. I'll see you for the next one.
Berlin is not like what you know before. Yeah, Berlin now, you don't have your peace; you go to market, you don't know any, you don't know the person that has a knife in their pocket. It's crazy.