MORE events are planned in Germany in support of Scottish independence following a successful march and rally in Berlin at the weekend.
Munich, Hamburg and Dortmund are already being considered by the Germans for Scottish Independence (GFI) group after their first march in the capital.
“We’re thinking of two or three more events,” group founder Marco Gorlach said. “Saturday was a great day and the police were very kind as we were allowed to rally in front of the Reichstag – that’s not usual.”
About 150 people attended the Berlin event which featured guest speakers including contraversial ex-SSP Tommy Sheridan, broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli and German MP Stefan Liebich of the Left Party. The latter is one of 50 European politicians to sign an open letter expressing support for Scotland joining the EU if independence is achieved post-Brexit.
Colin Macpherson of GFI said: “On the face of it, 150 does not sound like much but bear in mind it was a march in Berlin.
“It was similar to the number we had at the Hague in April which in itself was an achievement. We had folk from all over Germany — one guy even came from Denmark.”
As well as Germans, the marchers included Scots living in Germany and people who had travelled from Scotland to support the event.
Macpherson said: “We had a lot of folk who came and asked us what we were demonstrating against — we had to tell them we were demonstrating for independence. A lot of folk were bemused at first but then started taking pictures. The police cordoned off the streets for us and at the end we had a demonstration outside the Bundestag with the Reichstag in the background. It was quite a coup to get a demonstration there. When Tommy spoke it echoed off the buildings so probably half of Berlin heard him.
“It was historic surroundings.Where we started used to be the death strip in front of the Berlin wall. I was trying to highlight that 30 years ago we had three SNP MPs, we did not have a Scottish parliament and we had the Berlin wall so we have come a long way since then.
“We knew it was controversial to have Tommy speaking but having him meant we got more attention and he is a passionate speaker for independence. The independence movement has to come together and ended the backbiting.
Macpherson went on: “It was good for us to meet folk from the grassroots movement back home. We do what we can here but it is limited. However, we do feel we are doing something that is making a bit of difference even if it is just showing international unity and amassing support from Germans. The more support we have from Europe the better.
“There are now folk in Europe who are aware of the situation. We are not going to get politicians in Germany and the Netherlands saying they believe in Scottish independence per se but at least they are saying that if that is what you want then we will support you if you want to go back into Europe.”
Macpherson said he was grateful to everyone who had travelled to the event and that it was hoped to stage another in the near future.
“Having done the first one, we’ve got a bit of a taste for it so we certainly do intend to hold another,” he said. “It’s not going to be every week or every month as that would be pointless but we do want to keep the support going and raise awareness.
“Given that one of our goals is to raise awareness of the independence movement in Germany it was great to see a German MP giving his support to us.”
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