German riot police clash with protesters hoping to block far-right AfD conference

Police clash with activists who were protesting against a two-day convention of Germany's far-right AfD party in Erfurt. Photograph: Frank Simon/Reuters View image in fullscreen Police clash with activists who were protesting against a two-day convention of Germany's far-right AfD party in Erfurt. Photograph: Frank Simon/Reuters German riot police clash with protesters hoping to block far-right AfD conference Thousands of police deployed to Erfurt in central Germany as AfD holds conference on key Nazi date Riot police have clashed with opponents of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on the streets of Erfurt in Germany, where thousands met to block roads and prevent AfD delegates from attending the party’s biennial national conference to elect its leadership. Police reported 20,000 protesters were demonstrating in the eastern city, where Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla are expected to be re-elected as the party’s co-leaders in the run-up to crucial regional elections in which AfD could win power at state-level for the first time. View image in fullscreen AfD held its conference on the centennial of a Nazi party conference in nearby Weimar, where Adolf Hitler introduced the Hitler salute. Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP The protesters, led by the “Resistance” alliance, staged sit-in blockades in the city centre in an attempt to prevent the AfD’s approximately 600 delegates from reaching the conference grounds, with some abseiling from a motorway bridge and others glueing themselves to tram tracks to cause disruption. Thousands of police were deployed to the city, and some were filmed using batons on protesters who ran towards them, while others were captured on camera struggling to hold back crowds of demonstrators . However, a police spokesperson told Die Zeit that the demonstration had been “mostly peaceful”, adding that just under 100 offences had been recorded so far, many of them property damage by graffiti. View image in fullscreen The protesters, led by the “Resistance” alliance, staged sit-in blockades. Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Despite the efforts of the protesters to cause disruption, a spokesperson for the AfD told reporters 540 delegates had managed to reach the conference centre before 5am and its congress had begun on time. AfD’s decision to hold its conference on the centennial of a Nazi party conference in nearby Weimar, where Adolf Hitler unveiled the Hitler Youth movement and introduced the Hitler salute, has caused outrage in Germany . Historians and politicians say the timing of the conference is a deliberate provocation , which AfD has denied, describing its critics as “clearly only interested in the compulsive weaponisation of history.” Opponents of AfD accuse the party of promoting racist and anti-Muslim policies , and are angered by AfD politicians downplaying Nazi crimes . View image in fullscreen AfD’s co-leader Tino Chrupalla said holding party conferences was a ‘guaranteed right’. Photograph: Jens