France, Feb. 23 -- On the eve of Germany's general elections, the capital Berlin bore witness to numerous demonstrations as a controversial far-right march clashed with a larger group of antifa protesters, challenging police efforts to keep the groups apart. RFI's Jan Van der Made was on the ground, covering the escalating tensions.

"We are here today to demonstrate for law and order and against left-extremism and politically motivated violence," Ferhat Senturk told RFI.

He was one of the organisers of a rally of extreme right wing sympathisers and neo-nazis that got permission to march through the centre of Berlin on Saturday.

The group consisted of a few hundred, mostly young, people, clad in black, some with dead-head facemasks and ...