Police, protesters hurt in protests against new far-right youth group

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) established a new youth organization called Generation Deutschland (GD) on Saturday at a founding congress accompanied by massive protests.

More than 800 participants adopted a youth statute with rules on the role and work of the new organization, which, unlike its predecessor Junge Alternative, is to be closely linked to the AfD.

Several people with minor injuries were treated at the city’s university hospital as protests raged against the founding of the new group.

The people came on their own, received “accident surgery treatment” mainly for injuries to hands and legs and then left again, a hospital spokesman told dpa.

Around 10 to 15 officers also suffered minor injuries, the police said.

New group linked more closely to party

The Junge Alternative (JA) disbanded in the spring after the AfD severed ties with it. As an independent association, the JA was only loosely affiliated with the AfD and its members, excluding the executive committee, did not have to be members of the party and acted largely independently.

That gave the AfD little influence over the JA. As an association, the JA, which was classified as a proven far-right extremist group by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, also ran the risk of being banned.

Now only those who are already members of the AfD can join the new AfD youth organisation. Violations of the rules or misconduct can thus be punished, up to and including expulsion from the party. The organization is to be open to all AfD members under the age of 36, in what AfD leader Alice Weidel called a training ground for the party.

She said GD was primarily intended to produce capable young talent for the parent party, also with a view to next year’s state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where polls suggest the party could come to power for the first time, meaning many positions would need to be filled.

“So this is a training ground for government responsibility,’ said Weidel.

Protests delay arrivals

The event began with a 2-hour delay as the road blockades and protests prevented many of the roughly 1,000 planned attendees from reaching the venue.

AfD leaders Weidel and Tino Chrupall, and the designated head of the new youth group, Jean-Pascal Hohm, were also delayed, leaving numerous seats in the exhibition hall empty at the start of the assembly. They sharply criticized the blockades.

A group of demonstrators attempted to break through to the venue in the exhibition halls and a dpa reporter on site said some 30 to 40 people tried to break through the police barriers. The police pushed the activists back with a water cannon.

Weidel said AfD lawmaker Julian Schmidt was “beaten up” on the sidelines of the protests. He confirmed the attack to dpa, saying he was attacked by around 20 people after parking his car near the hall and suffered bruises and red marks on his nose and cheekbone as a result. He called the incident a new level of confrontation.

The police said that an AfD lawmaker had been injured nearby and that the suspected perpetrator had been arrested, and the investigation was ongoing. The police did not provide any further details or the name of the person involved.

Counter-demonstrations began early in the day with up to 50,000 demonstrators from all over Germany expected during the course of the day.

By early afternoon, the police reported a number “in the low five-digit range” and said many protested peacefully. Thousands of officers were also deployed from all over Germany in what was one of the largest police operations the state had seen.

The size of the operation was also due to calls for violence circulating in advance from the left-wing scene, police said.

Protesters blocked several roads in the vicinity of Giessen, including federal highways.

At some of the clashes, protesters threw bottles at members of the emergency services. At one blockade, officers used pepper spray against people throwing stones.

Protesters chanted “All together. Against fascism” and “Stop the arsonists” at a rally at the train station and gathered at other areas in the city.

The largest demonstration began near the city centre and the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), which organized the rally, said afterwards that there were more than 20,000 demonstrators.

Merz slams violence

Chancellor Friedrich Merz sharply criticized the clashes. “Tonight you will see television images from the city of Giessen that are anything but pleasant, a clash between the far left and the far right,” Merz told a state party conference. “I want us in the political centre of our country to show that we can solve problems.”

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt echoed his comments. “Demonstrating is a fundamental right, so it must be allowed. Gathering is also a fundamental right, so that must also be allowed,” he said at a state party conference in Leipzig. “But I can only say: I have the utmost respect for the police officers when I see masked people, anarchists, people with flares and torches approaching the police with the intention to use violence,” he said. “There is no fundamental right that justifies using violence against our security forces.”