ERFURT: Tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded a German city on Saturday, blocking major roads and disrupting public transport, but failed to halt a congress of the far-right AfD party.
Many Alternative for Germany — AfD — delegates arrived at the conference center in Erfurt in the early hours, before protesters set up their blockades and the event opened on time.
Protesters flocked from across Germany to join largely peaceful demonstrations against the party, which is topping national opinion polls. Police said around 31,000 took part while organizers said at least 50,000.
They blocked multiple routes into the eastern city, in Thuringia state, with some abseiling from a motorway bridge. Several groups staged sit-in blockades around the city center, according to journalists.
City authorities reported numerous disruptions to bus and subway services.
“It’s important to send a signal against the shift to the right,” demonstrator Lene Krug, 19, from Gera, east of Erfurt, said.
“The AfD is an anti-democratic party that spreads hate.”
Another protester, Ella, was among a group who stuck themselves to tram tracks in a city square.
“1933 to 1945 must never happen again,” said the 44-year-old, who only gave one name, referring to the period when the Nazis were in power. The democratic parties need to understand that they must impose a ban (on the AfD).”
As the day drew on, protesters lifted the blockades and marched toward the congress center.
Thousands of police have been deployed for the two-day congress.
Despite fears of violence, the protests had been largely peaceful, although police said they used pepper-spray during isolated clashes.
The AfD’s rise has unnerved many Germans, who feel they have a special duty to fight far-right politics given Germany’s dark Nazi past.
Some have seen a deliberate provocation in the AfD holding its conference in Erfurt on the 100th anniversary of a Nazi conference in nearby Weimar, a charge the AfD denies.
Alice Weidel, one of the AfD’s co-leaders, rejected claims that the party was anti-democratic, insisting: “We are the new people’s party in Germany.
“The AfD is ready to take responsibility because we, because the Germans, because Germany deserves to be governed well,” she told the congress.
The party is eyeing power for the first time as state elections loom in Germany’s ex-communist east, its electoral heartland.
Polls indicate it could win an absolute majority in September polls in Saxony-Anhalt state.
Nationwide, the party has been at or near the top of polls since national elections held last year, when it came second with 20 percent of the vote, behind Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right CDU/CSU bloc.
