Thousands protest far-right AfD congress in German town of Riesa
*Event date: 2025-01-11*
Thousands of protesters gathered in the German town of Riesa to oppose an Alternative for Germany, or AfD, convention that confirmed Alice Weidel as the party’s candidate for chancellor in the coming snap election.
Al Jazeera reported that organisers said 12,000 people turned out for the demonstration, while police put the number at about 8,000. Protesters tried to block delegates from reaching the convention centre, and police cleared blockades so the meeting could begin roughly two hours late. The event brought around 600 delegates together in the eastern state of Saxony.
The protest was not just a local skirmish but a signal of how polarised German politics had become before the February 23 election. The AfD has risen into second place in polls, according to the report, but the other parties have refused to work with it. That has not stopped the far-right party from pressing its message on immigration, identity and national change.
Inside the convention centre, Weidel praised her party colleagues for “defying the left-wing mob,” while co-leader Tino Chrupalla accused protesters of acting like “anti-democrats and terrorists.” Outside, demonstrators said they were defending the right of people to live without fear of deportation or attack. The language on both sides shows how little room there is for political compromise around the party.
The AfD meeting was also about more than choosing a candidate. Delegates were expected to finalise an election programme that included a proposed policy of “remigration,” a term the report says refers to a broad campaign to expel foreigners from Germany. Other proposed items in the draft manifesto included leaving the euro and reversing Germany’s exit from nuclear power.
The convention took place against a turbulent wider backdrop. Friedrich Merz, leader of the mainstream conservative Union bloc, was leading polls and trying to present himself as the likely next chancellor. Meanwhile, the government of Olaf Scholz had already collapsed after a dispute over economic policy, leading to the early election that has given the AfD new visibility.
The protest in Riesa therefore sits at the intersection of several German debates at once: migration, public order, the future of the far right and the direction of the economy. The fact that the convention went ahead only after police intervention underlines how fraught the atmosphere had become.
Even where the event remained under control, the rhetoric was intense. The AfD cast the protestors as a hostile mob, while the demonstrators treated the party as a democratic danger. That dynamic is now a fixed feature of Germany’s election season and a sign that the country’s political centre remains under strain.
For readers outside Germany, the scene in Riesa is a snapshot of a deeper confrontation: a far-right party trying to normalise its position inside the system, and a large counter-mobilisation determined to stop that normalisation from going unchallenged.
