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Hundreds of shopkeepers in the eastern German city of Magdeburg temporarily walked away from their counters on Wednesday, shuttering their businesses for several hours in a coordinated protest against the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the anti-immigration party currently polling first ahead of next month's state election in Saxony-Anhalt.
Around 150 enterprises took part in the action, concentrated in the district surrounding Hasselbachplatz, one of the city's central squares. Restaurants, barbershops and kiosks were among those that pulled down their shutters between 10 am and 3 pm local time (0800-1300 GMT), according to an organizer of the strike.
A demonstration outside the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament was also scheduled for later the same day, extending the protest beyond the city's commercial streets.
Organizers said the closure was designed to make visible what the city would lose if migrant-run enterprises disappeared. Participants pointed out that people with migration histories sustain essential services across the region — staffing care facilities, delivering parcels and keeping jobs going in construction and manufacturing.
But the message of the day went beyond economic contribution. One co-organizer, who works as a social worker, stressed that the strikers rejected being valued solely for their labor. The point, she said, was that they wished to be recognized as full members of society with the same needs and aspirations as everyone else.
Saeeid Saeeid of the Saxony-Anhalt refugee council echoed that sentiment. "What matters to us is this: no one should have to demonstrate through work or economic performance that they have a place in this society," he said.
Saeeid described a strong mood of mutual support among participants, saying business owners were encouraging each other, standing together and voicing their opposition to racism and exclusion through peaceful means.
The strike was intended, organizers said, as both a wake-up call to German society and a challenge to voters to examine the AfD's political program in detail before heading to the polls.
The protest comes at a charged political moment. Saxony-Anhalt goes to the ballot on September 6 to choose a new state parliament, and the AfD branch there currently tops opinion surveys with a chance of winning an outright majority — a milestone that would allow it to lead a state legislature for the first time in the party's history.
Germany's domestic intelligence service classifies the state's AfD organization as a far-right extremist group, a designation that has done little so far to dent its popularity in the region.
Wednesday's action drew participation beyond migrant entrepreneurs as well, with several businesses not owned by migrants announcing they too would close in solidarity.
For the strikers, the few hours of closed shutters were meant to send a simple signal to the rest of the state: that Magdeburg's migrant community is woven into everyday life there, and intends to defend its place in it — at the ballot box and beyond — as election day approaches.
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