It’s Official: ‘Anti-Fascism’ Has Become Authoritarianism

It’s one of the oddest phenomena of our time: organizations and ‘antifa’ groups presenting themselves as the respectable voices of “civil society” and defenders of democracy, while simultaneously attacking the most basic democratic rights and engaging in violent authoritarianism.

This past Saturday, the right-populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) gathered at a special congress in the university town of Giessen to found its new youth organization, Generation Deutschland (GD). A network calling itself Aktionsbündnis Widersetzen (Action Alliance Resist) took to the streets—and part of this network was the DGB, Germany’s Trade Union Confederation, which stated on its webpage:

The AfD attacks our principles, goals and convictions and questions the values we stand for. We therefore call on our members, supporters and employees to take part in the protest against the planned re-establishment of the AfD youth organisation on Saturday, 29 November 2025, in Giessen.

It’s the right of anyone to dislike the AfD and demonstrate against it. But Saturday’s actions, which drew around 25,000 participants, weren’t a demonstration—they were an active attempt to shut down the AfD gathering through street blockades and threats of violence against attendees. Around 6,000 police were needed to secure the conference and enable access to it. Even then, 50 policemen were injured, and the meeting could only start after a delay of several hours.

The whitewashing begins

The mainstream media documented violent clashes between police and demonstrators but mostly presented them as outliers in an otherwise largely peaceful event. The more time passes, the more aggressive the whitewashing becomes. One of the most blatant misrepresentations came from Frank-Tilo Becher (SPD), the mayor of Giessen:

“Giessen did not burn, but glowed. Thanks to the many people who celebrated their support for democracy cheerfully and peacefully,” he said—in an article that also mentioned that shop owners and Christmas markets had lost millions due to the protests and were hoping for compensation.

This whitewashing must be countered. The protest’s grave attacks on freedom of assembly, free speech, and press freedom must be publicly condemned. If our establishment won’t do this, it falls to all others who care for these principles.

Targeting press freedom

One of the most prominent victims was reporter Paul Ronzheimer from the Bild newspaper. Ronzheimer was covering both the AfD conference and the protests for the private TV channel Sat 1. In an interview with Die Welt, he recounted how, while conducting short interviews with protesters, he found himself targeted and insulted as a fascist by individuals from the crowd.

But far from being isolated incidents, the organizers actively escalated the situation. A message came over a loudspeaker from one of the organizer’s cars: “Make some noise against Paul Ronzheimer; he’s here.” Only then did the journalist find himself surrounded by an angry mob shouting “Nazis out” and “no Nazi propaganda.” As he and his team tried to leave, they were chased by protesters and needed police protection.

While Ronzheimer was ‘only’ insulted and forced to flee, Max Tichy, video editor of Tichys Einblick, was physically assaulted. Tichys Einblick is an independent print magazine and online publication founded in 2014 by Roland Tichy, former editor of business magazine Wirtschaftswoche, with the aim of challenging “Germany’s politically correct, consensus-driven style of journalism.”

Video material supports Max Tichy’s account: As he spoke to protesters, individuals began pushing him around. What initially looked like a minor scuffle escalated into a veritable physical fight with a group of men shouting the obligatory “Nazis out” and punching him. As in Ronzheimer’s case, announcements from DGB Trade Union loudspeakers—he was attending the official trade union section, not any radical fringe anarchist part of the demonstration—issued “warnings” that “streamers” from right-wing press outlets were present and that no one should speak to them. This was a barely concealed call to declare the journalist—who was traveling with only a cameraman and a security guard—an outlaw.

“The idea that there is an Antifa block which could be clearly distinguished from the rest of the demonstrators and from the Trade Union section, while the organizers adhered to peaceful non-violence, is a lie,” Tichy told me. He also noted that singling out and labeling non-state broadcasters as “streamers” was an attempt to discredit and divide the press—tolerating only those who are generally pro-mainstream and anti-AfD.

A dark place for democracy

Saturday’s violence and the subsequent denial of any problems with free reporting and other freedom rights show that Germany has become a dark place for democratic principles. It should serve as a warning about how far the establishment will go to secure its power.

Already in the run-up to the conference, there were serious attempts to have it banned. Germany’s state TV ran special programs putting pressure on the owner of the event location—an exhibition center—to withdraw from its contract with the AfD. “Did the Giessen Exhibition Centre really have to rent to the AfD?” asked the local, state-funded news program.

In an open letter published in November, the employees of the exhibition center complained about the pressure and threats they had endured:

For 30 years, we have adhered to the principle of neutrality, acting without discrimination in accordance with the law … We have always relied on the democratic foundations of the constitutional state. In the case of the AfD, there is now a new form of resistance; the event is neither politically nor medially desirable … As a result, we as a company and we as employees are being attacked in the media, boycotted, classified as right-wing extremists and insulted … This has gone so far that we have had to remove the names of our employees from our website and the police have offered to teach us how to protect our own lives and those of our families.

The distortion of ‘anti-fascism‘

It’s an odd distortion of reality that this type of anti-democratic bullying should be called ‘anti-fascist.’ Of course, we know that smearing opponents as “Nazi” has become one of the last resorts of those losing political ground, casting their opponents as irredeemably evil. Like the governing SPD with which it is closely aligned, the DGB has been experiencing a massive decline in membership and support for decades—membership fell from around 10 million in 1994 to just under 5.6 million in 2024. For its functionaries, representing ever fewer actual workers, the fight against the AfD and the populist challenge has become one of the most important, if not the only, justification for its existence. This has become especially true since the AfD has increasingly become the real workers’ party, with ever more working-class people—especially those in beleaguered industries—now voting for the AfD. (The AfD did better among workers than any other party in this year’s general election). 

There may well have been many, especially younger people, who joined the protest in the honest and firm belief that they were joining a fight against a real and imminent fascist threat. It’s a message these young people have been told by teachers and media pundits for years. (Max Tichy confirmed that before being attacked, he met young people of this type who were friendly and honestly convinced they were doing the right thing.) The image of trade unions in their early days as true representatives of workers’ interests, and their history of genuine anti-fascism from a time when fascism was truly a threat to its opponents’ lives, helps support this myth and confusion.

But it’s all the more important to tell these young people that the Trade Union Confederation today—and certainly many of its loudest functionaries—are quite the opposite of those old, long-dead anti-Nazis and freedom fighters. Instead, the DGB and the many other ‘anti-fascist’ groups as they presented themselves on Saturday have become the new authoritarians.

Inside vs. outside

In comparison to the violence and intolerance of the protesters, the AfD meeting inside the exhibition hall appeared refreshingly composed and professional. There were differences of opinion and open votes. Not everyone will be happy with all the messages from the young party delegates gathered there, many after having undergone something of an odyssey (some reportedly arrived at 5 o’clock in the morning to ensure they could reach the site before the protests began).

But one thing should be clear: the rhetoric and the actions of the self-proclaimed ‘antifa’ confirm how much of a threat to democracy and freedom they have become.