Thousands of protesters gathered in Erfurt, eastern Germany, on Saturday to demonstrate against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, blocking roads leading to its annual conference. The AfD re-elected its co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, who have overseen the party's surge to the top of national opinion polls.
Protesters Block Roads, Police Deploy Reinforcements
Unions, civil society groups, and left-wing parties organized the demonstrations, with police estimating around 15,000 participants. Officers in riot gear watched as protesters sat in rows to block highways and access roads to the Messe Erfurt convention center. Police reinforcements from across Germany were deployed ahead of the two-day conference.
“We want to make it clear that we simply won’t tolerate this, that fascism is on the rise here in Germany,” said Georg Becker, a spokesperson for Widersetzen, an anti-AfD umbrella group behind the protests.
AfD Re-Elects Leaders, Targets Regional Elections
Inside the convention center, Weidel and Chrupalla were re-elected as party chiefs. Under their leadership, the AfD has risen above Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives in national polls. Opening speeches mocked the protesters as anti-democratic and celebrated the party’s potential to win regional elections this year for the first time.
“For this remains our last chance to save our country,” Weidel said. “More and more people in this country want to support us in the fight against Germany’s decline, in the fight for our fatherland and for our identity.”
The party’s hardline stance on immigration was highlighted by a song called “Send them back” played on its social media stream before the convention opened. Inside, vintage-style cards with slogans like “YOU will be deported” were on sale.
Radical Figures Speak, Polls Show Rising Support
Bjoern Hoecke, considered one of the party’s most radical leaders, offered a mix of nostalgia and invective, pointing to the state of Germany’s motorway toilets as an example of national decline. “A great Germany is a Germany where one need not fear taking a walk through the city park in the evening. A great Germany is a country where apartment keys can be left hanging on the outside of the door,” he said.
The conference comes ahead of elections in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which the AfD hopes will pave the way for national success. Recent polls put AfD support as high as 29 percent, compared with around 22 percent for Merz’s CDU/CSU conservatives. Its strongest support comes from the former communist east, where voter disillusionment with traditional parties is highest.
Opponents Warn of Constitutional Threat
Opponents accuse the AfD of promoting racist policies and attitudes incompatible with Germany’s democratic values, saying it would threaten the country’s constitutional order. Mainstream parties have maintained a “firewall” strategy, ruling out any cooperation to isolate the party. AfD leaders deny opposing democratic foundations and earlier this year won a court injunction to suspend a previous classification of the party as “extremist” by the domestic intelligence service.
“Criminals and illegal migrants have no place in Germany any more,” Weidel said. “We will deport them rigorously, because our country deserves better.”
