Water cannons, tear gas and battles between left-wing protesters and the police delayed the AfD congress

Participants in the protest prevented AfD representatives from entering the building. The event was originally supposed to start at ten in the morning, but the start was moved at least an hour.

Left-wing organizations and trade unions called for demonstrations. The police, who expected about ten thousand demonstrators despite the freezing weather, closed some streets around the meeting place as a precaution.

“There are more of us” and “We don’t want Nazis”, chanted the opponents of the AfD, whose convention officially approved the party’s co-chairwoman Alicia Weidel as a candidate for the office of Federal Chancellor in February’s early elections to the Bundestag. It is the first time in history that the AfD has nominated its representative for a leading government position.

Trains, buses and cars with demonstrators from all over Germany came to Riesa, a city with 29,000 inhabitants, already at night. At seven o’clock in the morning, the first protest action started, when about a thousand AfD opponents marched from the railway station to the WT Arena, where the convention is taking place.

But they didn’t get far because the police stopped the parade. At the same time, she faced numerous attacks by demonstrators who threw lit pyrotechnics at law enforcement officers and injured two policemen. The police deployed water cannons and tear gas.

“Leftist rioters tried to paralyze the police. They punctured the tires on her company cars, loosened the valves and painted the cars,” a reporter for Bild newspaper described the tense situation. “The situation is dynamic, but still relatively calm,” the police spokesman described the development.

In addition to the nomination of the candidate for the office of chancellor, the congress delegates are also to discuss the election program of the AfD. His proposal envisages the withdrawal of Germany from the eurozone and the initiation of a hard course in migration policy.

The congress is being held in Riese because the AfD enjoys strong support in this city. In last September’s elections to the Saxon State Assembly, 40 percent of the participating voters voted for the AfD here.

In all-German polls, the AfD is the second strongest party with 22 percent, after the favored Christian conservative bloc CDU/CSU, which can count on 30 percent of the vote. The Social Democrats (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz can count on only 16 percent and the Greens of Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck with 13 percent.

Early parliamentary elections will take place on Sunday, February 23.