Around 25,000 people braved the rain in Munich on Sunday to protest the hard-line immigration stance of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies three months before they face a tough state election in Bavaria.
The protest is another sign of the Christian Social Union's (CSU) waning popularity after an Infratest poll published last week put its support in Bavaria at 38 percent, compared with the 47.7 percent it secured in a 2013 regional election.
March organizers said in a statement they were demonstrating against the "irresponsible divisive politics" of top members of the CSU, which governs Bavaria and is the sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).