German union leaders on Wednesday called on members to push back against “rising incitement and hate” as traditional May Day demonstrations took place amid growing tensions over local reaction to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Authorities in Berlin deployed more than 6,000 police officers on Wednesday evening as union demonstrations and street parties to mark the labour day holiday segued into a tense – but largely peaceful – march of left-wing and extreme-left groups.
Marchers moving through the left-wing Kreuzberg neighbourhood after 6pm could be heard chanting slogans such as: “From the river to the sea”; “Stop the genocide”; “Yalla yalla intifada”; and, in Arabic, “Palestine is Arab”. On Wednesday evening police stopped the march of an estimated 7,500 people several times after forbidden slogans were chanted. A group calling itself the Revolutionary Communist Party chanted “intifada until victory”.
Before the march, many of these slogans were read out by police – and Arabic translators – as forbidden because of laws against incitement and anti-Semitism.
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Earlier, the head of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) Yasmin Fahimi called for members to push back against a resurgent extreme right “until these brown agitators have been put in their place”.
Traditional labour demands took second place on Wednesday amid growing pressure – on police and pro-Palestinian marchers – in the months since the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel. Last week Berlin police shut down a Palestinian solidarity camp in the parliamentary district. Early on Wednesday morning, 16 delivery vans owned by online retailer Amazon caught fire, with police investigating if the blaze was set deliberately.
Expectations of a police crackdown at this year’s May Day events had been building after men marching in Hamburg on Sunday called for sharia (Islamic law) and an Islamic “caliphate” to replace Germany’s democratic order. The demonstration was organised by Muslim Interactive, designated as an extremist organisation by German intelligence services.
Federal minister of the interior Nancy Faeser said on X that “anyone who wants a caliphate in Germany has come to the wrong place”. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted that “all Islamist activities must be tackled using the possibilities and options of the rule of law”.
The march, and marchers’ slogans, have caused outrage in Germany, with opposition politicians demanding tougher punishments for calls to abolish democracy. Fearing a repeat on Wednesday evening, Hamburg authorities deployed 1,800 officers to supervise a demonstration with an estimated 9,000 participants.
At demonstrations on Tuesday evening in Berlin, queer-feminist groups held peaceful “Take back the night” demonstrations with only minor confrontations with police involving eggs and fireworks.
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