German riot police clash with protesters hoping to block far-right AfD conference | Germany

Riot police clashed with opponents of the far-right Alternatif für Deutschland (AfD) party on the streets of Erfurt, Germany, to block roads and prevent thousands of people from attending the biennial national conference of AfD delegates to elect the party’s leadership.

Police said 20,000 protesters demonstrated in the eastern city, where Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla are expected to be re-elected as co-leaders of the party, ahead of crucial regional elections that could see the AfD come to power at the state level for the first time.

Protesters led by the “Resistance” alliance staged sit-ins in the city center to prevent approximately 600 delegates of the AfD from reaching the conference venue; Some went off the motorway bridge, while others caused mayhem by sticking themselves to tram tracks.

Thousands of police were deployed to the city and some Protesters were intervened with batons Some were running towards them, while others were caught on camera. Trying to stop the crowd of demonstrators.

But a police spokesman said: Die Zeit He said the demonstration was “mostly peaceful”, adding that fewer than 100 crimes had been recorded so far, most of which involved damage to property due to graffiti.

Despite efforts by protesters to disrupt order, an AfD spokesman told reporters that 540 delegates managed to reach the conference center before 5 a.m. and the congress started on time.

The AfD’s decision to hold its conference to mark the centenary of the Nazi party conference near Weimar, where Adolf Hitler introduced the Hitler Youth movement and gave the Hitler salute. anger in germany.

Historians and politicians said the timing of the conference was a deliberate provocation, while the AfD dismissed its critics as “clearly only interested in the coercive weaponization of history”.

AfD opponents accuse the party of promoting racist and anti-Muslim policies and are angry at AfD politicians Belittling Nazi crimes.

Protesters in Erfurt included federal environment minister Carsten Schneider and Thuringian interior minister Georg Maier, who gathered at the second demonstration organized by the Stand Together alliance, where “Grandmothers Against the Right” waved homemade banners.

“It’s important to send a signal against the shift to the right,” one of the demonstrators, 19-year-old Lene Krug from Gera, east of Erfurt, told Agence France-Presse reporters. “AfD is an anti-democratic party that spreads hatred.”

Another protester from the group who wedged himself against the tram tracks in the city square told AfP: “The period between 1933 and 1945 should never happen again,” referring to the period when the Nazis were in power.

Ella, 44, who gave only her first name, added: “The democratic parties need to understand that they need to introduce a ban. [on the AfD].”

In his opening speech, Chrupalla accused the demonstrators of protesting “democratic decision-making”. “They believe they have a monopoly on democracy. I say to these demonstrators: This democracy is our democracy as much as it is yours.”

He added that holding party conferences was a “guaranteed right”, according to Die Zeit. “These troublemakers are the last line of defense in our political competition.”

He then called on his supporters to help his party win an absolute majority in the Saxony-Anhalt state elections. “This will send the right signal to democracy haters who want to disrupt our party conference,” he said.

Describing his dual leadership with Weidel as “a rare successful duo in German politics”, he added: “We are for unity, not division.”