17-02-2025
'Grannies Against The Right' hit the streets in Germany ahead of election
Ahead of Germany's February 23rd election, the Omas Gegen Rechts (or Gannies against the right) have amped up their campaign against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is polling at a record 20 percent or higher.
Most of the group's members either have early-childhood memories of Nazi Germany or grew up amid the rubble of the devastated and shamed country, and are now determined to warn younger generations of the dangers of political extremism.
"Whenever there's anti-democratic behaviour, we can't stay quiet," said Uta Saenger, one of the organisers of a nationwide day of action earlier this month that drew 24,000 people in the northern city of Hannover alone.
The Omas movement has become a force to be reckoned with as right-wing extremism is on the rise again. While many retirees may be quietly kicking back, the Grannies hit the streets with gusto.
"In the past year we have held or participated in over 80 protests," Maja, a 72-year-old member in Berlin, told AFP, saying many rallies were shows of solidarity at synagogues against antisemitism.
She said her Jewish background made the issue deeply personal, as "my grandmother had to leave Germany with my father".
She said some of her grandchildren are of Middle Eastern heritage, "and I don't want them to have to leave Germany. That's why I joined the Omas."
Knitted firewall
At another recent rally, held in the city of Nuremberg, the Omas were out in force again, some of them holding up a knitted banner in the form of a "firewall".
That is a reference to the long-established agreement between Germany's mainstream parties not to cooperate with extremists in any form.
Many accuse the conservative CDU, which is leading the polls at around 30 percent, of blowing a hole in the firewall last month by teaming up with the AfD to push a motion curbing immigration through parliament.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has insisted he is not seeking any further cooperation with the far-right and argues that action is needed after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on migrants and asylum seekers.
Gabi Heller, 58 and one of the founders of the Nuremberg chapter of the Omas, told AFP that "it's an easy solution to blame migration for everything, but this is just total nonsense".
Speaking during a demonstration held on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army, she said she wanted to "preserve democracy" for her three grandchildren.
The Omas movement started in 2017 in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has long been a more established part of the political scene than Germany's AfD.
In Austria, too, the Omas have been regulars at demonstrations against the FPÖ, sometimes even regaling the crowds with a song or two.
But despite their efforts, the FPÖ came first in a general election for the first time last year.
In Nuremberg, 70-year-old Margit Hopperdietzl from the local Omas branch said it was "worrying how little success the grannies in Austria have had and how the right-wing movement there is going from strength to strength".
"Of course we hope the same won't happen in Germany."
'We were too naïve'
The Omas are certainly determined but Heller said they have no illusions about the progress the AfD has made, particularly in formerly communist eastern Germany.
She told AFP about a national Omas congress held last summer in Thuringia, a state where the AfD won a regional election for the first time ever in September.
"It was shocking how we were treated," she said, adding that "it's not yet the same" in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg.
"Here I can walk down the street with my 'Grandmas' sign and I don't have to be afraid".
She said the AfD's growth "makes it even more important to act and at least reach the 80 percent who definitely won't vote for the AfD".
Eva-Maria Singer, 73, who has been a member of the Omas in Nuremberg for three years, said her generation who came of age in the protests of the 1960s were "too naive".
On the far right, she said "we thought we had eradicated it, but that's not true, now it's growing again".
Nevertheless, Singer stressed that "we are fighting against it and we believe we can win".
