German far-right AfD youth event disrupted as thousands of protestors block access

A meeting set to launch the new youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was delayed Saturday as thousands of protestors blocked access to the event venue.

Thousands of anti-AfD protestors began descending on the town of Giessen from early morning, with police also out in force.

One of the protest organisations, “Resist”, said that it blocked several routes towards the AfD meeting and had gathered 15,000 people.

The AfD’s meeting was expected to start at 10 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) but had not started as of 11:30. Proceedings had not yet started “due to the protests,” party spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf told AFP.

When the meeting does start, attendees are expected to choose the new youth wing’s leaders, statutes, name and logo.

The anti-immigration AfD became Germany’s main opposition at February’s general election in which it won a record score of over 20 percent and hopes to make further gains at state elections next year in its eastern heartlands.

The new youth organisation will replace the Junge Alternative (JA), which was classified as an extremist group by intelligence services and then disbanded by the AfD earlier this year, pre-empting a possible ban.

The JA had frequently been involved in controversies, including its members using racist chants and holding meetings with neo-Nazis.

 ‘Something has to change’

The new AfD youth wing is expected to be called “Generation Deutschland” or “Youth Germania” and members will decide whether to adopt a suggested logo bearing an eagle, a cross and Germany’s national colours black, red and gold.

Its likely first leader will be Jean-Pascal Hohm, 28, an AfD state lawmaker from eastern Germany with long-standing ties to various far-right and ethno-nationalist groups.

Inside the hall stalls were set up offering the delegates – overwhelmingly men – merchandise including protein powder and mugs and T-shirts bearing images of AfD leaders.

Kevin Potthast, a 34-year-old electrician active in local AfD politics, said he came to the meeting because “the country is in a bad way and something has to change”.

“It’s important to get young people involved, as they are the future,” he said.

One of the counter-protestors in the streets outside, 28-year-old Irina Gildt, told AFP that she felt it was important to demonstrate in favour of diversity and not to be intimidated “by fear or by hatred”.

“That’s worth getting up early for,” she said.

Far-right milieu

In May, Germany’s domestic security service declared the AfD as a whole a “right-wing extremist” organisation, fuelling calls to ban it.

The party has challenged the designation in the courts.

Political observers expect the new youth wing to be at least as radical as the JA.

Fabian Virchow, of the University of Duesseldorf, said that “the leading figures come from a far-right milieu, in which former activists from the Identitarian Movement, fraternities, neo-Nazism and ethno-nationalist groups come together”.

While the JA operated as a registered association relatively free of the parent party, its successor is set to be more closely integrated into the AfD and subject to its disciplinary structures.

Stefan Marschall, of Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf, said the new set-up “gives the party leadership control over this branch of the organisation and thus helps it to present a more unified front.

“However, this comes at the cost of the party no longer being able to completely credibly distance itself from the youth organisation should it adopt problematic positions.”

The youth wing is expected to assert its independence from day one.

One motion to be voted on says “the new youth organisation should neither blindly follow the parent party nor serve as a lapdog for the federal or state executive committees of the parent party”.

(Except the headline, this story hs not been edited by Firstpost staff.)