Empower Democracy!
How to Defend Our Institutions and Values Against the Rise of the Far Right?

Spui25 (Amsterdam), 4 October 2024

Slowly but surely, the far right is coming to power in many European countries. The Netherlands is no exception: as the big winner of the Tweede Kamer elections, the radical right-wing party PVV is part of the government now. Meanwhile in Germany, the partially extremist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is on the rise. This deeply worrisome trend challenges our liberal democracies. How can we push back the wave of right-wing extremism and defend democracy? On 4 October, we talked to political scientist Léonie de Jonge and blogger and activist Thomas Laschyk about the urgent and thorny questions of how to deal with the far right in the Netherlands and Germany. The Dutch-German band DeuBa explored the topic with a special selection of German protest songs.