Pride march organizers in Germany are bracing for a summer of organized opposition by far-right groups, while several events have already been canceled following explicit threats by extremist groups.
In the eastern German city of Bautzen, organizers of a local Pride parade set to take place in August are preparing for a large counter demonstration of right-wing extremists, many of them teenagers, Politico reports.
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“Man and woman. The true foundation of life,” reads an online post advertising one of the protests there.
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The counterdemonstrations are attracting a collection of aggrieved Germans including neo-Nazis and members of the country’s rising far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who are using the events as recruiting tools for young, disaffected German youth.
More than 200 Pride events are scheduled across Germany this year.
The far right counterprotests are being organized under a banner co-opting the German translation for Pride Month, Stolzmonat, to celebrate “straight Pride.”
“Stolzmonat is an alternative that seeks to consciously counter the forced change… setting an example of traditional values, family ties and stability in uncertain times,” reads a statement from AfD in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
AfD won a state election for the first time last year and became Germany’s largest opposition party in the federal parliament in February.
“For a long time, the German far right focused on migration, Islam, E.U. skepticism, and the coronavirus,” said Sabine Volk, a researcher at the Institute for Research on Far-Right
Hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people reached a new high in Germany in 2023, with 1,785 incidents reported, according to the latest data available.
In 2024, 27 Pride marches in Germany were targeted by far-right groups, most of them in eastern Germany, according to CeMAS, a non-profit extremist monitoring organization, which said members of the neo-Nazi groups were often young men.
Last year in Bautzen and Leipzig in eastern Germany, hundreds of far-right protesters tried to disrupt annual LGBTQ+ marches. Police stopped 28 men, half of them minors, who planned to attack last year’s Pride march in Berlin.
This year, police showed up in force at the June Pride march in the northeastern town of Eberswalde after a diversity festival in a neighboring town was attacked days earlier.
Police in Berlin reported an attempted attack at a Pride march in the capital’s eastern district of Marzahn two weeks ago, while the western city of Gelsenkirchen cancelled its Pride event in May after authorities were tipped off to an imminent threat.
Organizers of Bautzen Pride say their event is seeing the same threats and intimidation they did in 2024.
“The threats are much harsher online because of the supposed anonymity,” said Lea Krause, one of the organizers. “But it’s tough on the street too, simply because you’re face to face with people. And they know exactly who you are, and you also know who they are.”
This year, Bautzen Pride-goers will face far-right protesters demanding “respect for the natural order,” according to counter-demonstration organizers, but Krause believes the threats will inspire an even larger turnout for Pride.
“People in Bautzen really want to go through with this,” she said. “We are very, very brave and empowered to keep on going.”
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