Essen [Germany], June 30: Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gathered in the western city of Essen for a two-day party congress, as huge crowds of protesters clashed with a massive contingent of police outside the venue.
The AfD is coming off a second-place finish in the European Parliament elections earlier this month, and is gearing up for state parliamentary elections in three eastern German states where the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic party appears to have an edge in the polls.
"We are number one in the east," AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla declared to delegates on Saturday. "We want to win these elections, and we want to expand and maintain this position."
AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel attacked Germany's centre-left coalition government, the country's domestic security services and recent reforms to Germany's citizenship law in a speech to nearly 600 delegates in the city's Grugahalle indoor arena.
She claimed the country has "degenerated into a pony farm" and warned that "Germany will do away with itself if we don't get our act together and finally put an end to this woke hippie madness."
Source: Qatar Tribune