The protests against high energy prices and the consequences of the Ukraine war are gaining ground in East Germany. According to police estimates, more than 100,000 people demonstrated on the Day of German Unity at dozens of rallies in Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. This emerges from balance sheets from the authorities on Tuesday.

In Thuringia alone, around 38,000 people took part in 42 meetings on Monday, according to a spokesman for the state operations center in Erfurt. That was about 10,000 more than on Monday a week ago. Around 10,000 people attended a demonstration in Gera, in which AfD country chief Björn Höcke also appeared.

In Saxony, the situation center of the Ministry of the Interior spoke of around 32,000 participants at 109 meetings on Monday. In downtown Leipzig there was, among other things, an elevator with participant numbers in the lower four-digit range, as the police announced.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the Ministry of the Interior estimated the number of participants in around 45 meetings at a total of 14,600 - compared to around 12,000 last week. Most of the participants were in Magdeburg with around 2500. According to the police, the applicants came from the left spectrum as well as from those alliances that had already taken to the streets against the Corona policy in winter.

In Brandenburg, the police estimated the number of participants in 35 protest rallies nationwide on Monday at 10,500 - that was fewer than the 13,000 people a week ago. The police in Cottbus recorded the largest number of participants with around 2000 people. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, around 9,800 people took to the streets nationwide, as the Ministry of the Interior reported on Tuesday.