San Francisco Frontiers - Mass protests in Germany fail to stop far-right AfD congress

Many Alternative for Germany (AfD) delegates arrived at the conference centre 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 organisers 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 centre, according to AFP 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, told AFP.

"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)."

- State polls loom -

As the day drew on, protesters lifted the blockades and marched towards the congress centre.

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 centre-right CDU/CSU bloc.

- Afd leaders re-elected -

The party's other co-leader Tino Chrupalla echoed Weidel's message.

"Perhaps we'll soon be able to govern on our own,” he added, referring to the state polls.

"That would be the right signal to the democracy-despisers out there who wanted to stop our party conference."

Weidel and Chrupalla were re-elected as the party co-leaders Saturday for another two years, as expected.

Weidel received 81 percent of the vote and Chrupalla 70 percent -- a reversal from the previous ballot two years ago, when Chrupalla won more votes.

Merz has made it his mission to reverse the rise of the AfD, which has been locked out of power as all other parties have refused to cooperate with it.

The AfD says it is a conservative force occupying the space once held by Merz's Christian Democrats before former chancellor Angela Merkel a decade ago allowed millions of refugees and asylum seekers into Germany.

But critics point to AfD politicians downplaying Nazi crimes and links to banned right-wing extremist groups.

Bjoern Hoecke -- considered one of the AfD's most radical figures -- had pushed a controversial motion at this weekend's congress to revise the party's so-called "incompatibility list".

The list sets out which extremist groups AfD members cannot belong to.

But apparently under pressure from party leaders, Hoecke withdrew the motion. Weidel however vowed the party would revise the list within a year.

M.Hill--SFF