Thousands gathered in Germany for a protest against the far-right Congress AfD | Far right news

Thousands of people tried to prevent delegates from attending the meeting where Alice Weidel was selected as the AfD’s candidate for chancellor in next month’s election.

Thousands of protesters chanting “No Nazis” gathered in the German town of Ries, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party held a key convention to endorse co-leader Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor in next month’s snap election.

The meeting, which drew around 600 delegates on Saturday, finally got under way two hours later after police cleared thousands of protesters who had set up roadblocks in the AfD stronghold city, located in the eastern state of Saxony.

Protest organizers, who said 12,000 people from across the country showed up for the protests, said police beat groups of protesters and used pepper spray to disperse them.

Maria Schmidt, a spokeswoman for protest organizers, said: “Today we are protecting people’s right to live in safety without fear of deportation or attack.

“We all make it clear: Riesa is not a peaceful place for fascism,” she said.

Police claimed that around 8,000 protesters gathered outside the city’s convention center. By late morning, the spokesman said there was “no serious unrest” but that one road on the way to Riesa remained blocked by protesters.

As the congress began inside the convention center, Weidel congratulated her party colleagues for “defying the leftist crowd,” while party co-leader Tino Chrupalla accused the protesters of behaving like “anti-democrats and terrorists.”

‘remigration’

Analysts say Weidel – who was endorsed by tech billionaire Elon Musk in a livestream chat on X this week – has no realistic chance of becoming Germany’s leader in the February 23 election.

While polls show the far-right party in second place, attracting the support of around 20 percent of the electorate, other parties have refused to cooperate with it.

At the AfD’s two-day meeting, delegates will finalize the party’s election program, with one proposed amendment committing the party to a policy of “remigration” – meaning a broad campaign to expel foreigners from Germany.

Controversy has also been fueled by the party’s leadership’s plans to remove its youth wing Junge Alternative (“Young Alternative”), which intelligence services have classified as an extremist group.

The draft manifesto also includes a pledge to leave the euro and reverse Germany’s exit from nuclear energy.

‘Let’s go fight’

Friedrich Merz, the mainstream candidate of the conservative opposition Union bloc who is leading the polls with around 30 percent, is currently favored to become the next chancellor.

The Union is focusing on boosting Germany’s stagnant economy and reducing irregular migration.

At a press conference in Hamburg, Merz focused on bringing about “fundamental change” after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular and divisive centre-left coalition collapsed in November.

Scholz’s coalition government fell apart after he sacked his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize the economy, leading to early elections.

Scholz admitted on Saturday that mistakes were made, but said it was time to look to the future.

“We are going to fight,” he told delegates at the party convention in Berlin, which formally confirmed his nomination as a candidate by a show of hands.