Twenty Thousand Protest Against Far-Right AfD Party Congress in Germany as Party Opens Lead in Polls

About 20,000 people demonstrated in Erfurt on Saturday against the AfD's annual party congress, according to police, though German police later cited roughly 31,000 participants across marches, rallies, and sit-ins and organizer alliances "Zusammenstehen" and "Widersetzen" claimed 50,000 123. Protesters blocked roads and tram lines and staged blockades, with some rappelling from a motorway bridge, while police reported paint-bomb and firework attacks on an AfD constituency office and officers, and t-online reported 48 registered offenses along with pepper-spray use and injuries to at least two journalists from thrown bottles 134. Despite the protests, the congress opened on schedule and delegates re-elected co-chairs Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, with Chrupalla receiving 70.05 percent of the vote and Weidel 81.3 percent, unopposed 134. Thuringia police described the demonstration as legitimate, while Chrupalla told delegates protesters had been "carted in here from all over the country by the establishment parties" 14. Euronews reported national polling put AfD support at 29 percent against 22 percent for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU/CSU, and Al Jazeera cited polling showing AfD at 42 percent in Saxony-Anhalt ahead of that state's election 24.