The AfD congress, which is scheduled to last until Sunday, opened a good half-hour late due to multiple street blockades aimed at disrupting the arrival of delegates. Some of the actions led to violence and arrests when protesters, “partly wearing balaclavas, attacked the intervention forces,” the North Rhine-Westphalia police announced on its X account. The officers had to use “pepper spray and batons, eleven officers were injured,” it added.
The party, for its part, displayed its electoral ambitions: “we want to govern, first in the east, then in the west, then at the federal level” of Germany, declared Tino Chrupalla, the co-president of the Alternative for Germany, in front of the 550 delegates gathered in Essen (west).
The city is patrolled by a force of more than a thousand police officers to deal with the demonstrations which could bring together around 80,000 people in total. Regional Interior Minister Herbert Reul said he feared that the congress would cause potentially violent disruptions.
On Saturday, 50,000 protesters, according to the organizers, marched towards the congress hall, carrying banners and placards reading “Resistance!” and “Together for democracy.” “The AfD is not welcome here. We stand for a cosmic and democratic society,” said Linda Kastrup, spokeswoman for the association “Gemeinsam Laut” (“Loud Together”).
Tino Chrupalla, who was re-elected, as was Alice Weidel, for two more years by a large majority at the head of the AfD, welcomed the progress made at the local level and in the European elections, at the end of which this party born in 2013 obtained the best score in its history, with almost 16% of the vote, ahead of the social-democratic party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Alternative for Germany, a far-right and xenophobic group, is also expected to win the regional elections in three Länder in eastern Germany in September, without however achieving a score that would allow it to govern alone . So far, other parties have always ruled out cooperating with him.
Concerning the Europeans, Tino Chrupalla regretted a missed opportunity. The AfD was still credited with 22% in the polls in January before losing ground following several controversies surrounding its head of list Maximilian Krah.
