The divisive politics of the Alternative for Germany were on full display, both inside the party's convention and on the streets outside of it. DW's Elizabeth Schumacher reports from Hanover.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
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Protesters, police clash as far-right Alternative for Germany picks new leaders
Several people have been injured during clashes between police and activists protesting against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party conference in Hanover. Authorities used water cannons against the protesters.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Protests turn violent
The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party conference was delayed for several hours on Saturday due to protests in the city of Hanover. Police used water cannons to disperse several hundred left-wing and anti-capitalism protesters, with TV footage showing authorities carrying away demonstrators. AfD lawmaker Kay Gottschalk said he was injured by protesters, according to dpa news agency.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Left-wing movements gather
Members of the anti-fascist movement Antifa, which has seen a recent resurgence after the rise of US President Donald Trump, were among people from many groups that attended protests, including several trade unions. Gathered under the banner "Our Hanover - colorful and in solidarity," about 6,500 participants rallied on Saturday.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. C. Dittrich
Anti-AfD protests begin early
Left-wing and anti-capitalism protests in Hanover began on Friday evening, a day ahead of the AfD's party conference. Authorities said those rallies went ahead mostly peacefully. On Saturday, however, the scale was far larger, as thousands more gathered from 6 a.m. (0500 UTC) to march towards Hanover's city center.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. von Ditfurth
Protesters and police scuffles
As protest groups approached the city center, demonstrators planned to obstruct road access to the Hanover Conference Center, where the AfD was holding its party conference. Officials reported that both police and protesters had been injured in confrontations. One protester, who was chained to a barrier, broke a leg while being dragged away by police.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Police fire water cannons in near-freezing temperatures
As a number of protesters continued attempts to occupy the streets around the conference center. Police resorted to firing water cannons in a bid to disperse the crowds, despite December temperatures being close to freezing. Authorities reportedly also carried pepper spray and battons.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
AfD officials closely guarded
As protesters rallied in Hanover's city center, authorities raised barriers and rolled out barbed wire around all nearby roads leading to the conference center. Such a strong emphasis on security is virtually unprecedented for a party conference and says a lot about the nature of the AfD's divisive politics.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Out in force, whatever the temperature
Despite the freezing temperatures, peaceful protesters continued to rally in full force throughout the day. "No one can dictate what it means to be German. We got rid of the far-right after World War II. We can do it again" one young demonstrator told DW's Elizabeth Schumacher.
Image: DW/E. Schumacher
From clashes on the streets, to potential party in-fighting
The AfD, holding its first party conference since being voted into the Bundestag, is electing new leaders. Members will decide whether hardliners lead the AfD further to the right or if relative moderates position the anti-immigration party as what they call traditionally conservative.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. C. Dittrich
Picking new leaders
The 8,500 AfD delegates voted against a proposal to do away with the two-leader system in the party. On Saturday, Joerg Meuthen was elected for two more years as the AfD's co-chair. The 56-year-old received 72 percent of votes. Alexander Gauland was chosen as the AfD co-leader with 68 per cent of the vote.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
'Patriotic course'
In his opening speech, Meuthen accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of "failing the country" and called for a "patriotic course." Despite his free-market liberal background, Meuthen is popular with the AfD's supporters.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
Giving a new twist to 'We can do it'
"There are people in this country who don't only say 'We can do this' but who actually manage to do something," Meuthen told delegates, apparently in a reference to Merkel's "Wir schaffen das" (We can do it) message to those who were skeptical about Germany's ability to deal with a record influx of migrants in 2015.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
Uncertain times
Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has turned to the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) after her efforts to form a coalition government with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) failed last month. The AfD is hoping to capitalize on the political uncertainty in Germany.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka
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"There are people in this country who say 'we can do it,' and those who actually get something done," Jörg Meuthen, the spokesman for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), said on Saturday as he opened the AfD's first national convention as a party in the Bundestag.
The comment was a clear shot across the aisle at Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had famously said "we can do it" in response to questions about how Germany would take in hundreds of thousands of displaced people beginning in 2015. The AfD has made refugees the party's bread and butter since it morphed from its roots in euroskeptic fiscal conservatism to the anti-immigrant nationalism it is known for today.
Meuthen appeared positively gleeful that, over two months after Germany's federal elections, Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have yet to form a government.
"More mature, more adult, smarter" is how Meuthen described the AfD, which would be the largest opposition party in the Bundestag if Merkel's CDU forms another grand coalition with the center-left Social Democrats. That would allow AfD members to speak first in Bundestag debates.
Indeed, there was much self-congratulation on Saturday at the AfD's convention in the northern city of Hanover. The first order of the day was a recap of election successes in 14 of Germany's 16 state parliaments (with a promise to take Hesse and Bavaria next year) and a round of applause for the AfD's 92 newly minted Bundestag lawmakers.
DW exclusive with the AfD's Jörg Meuthen
02:12
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Competing camps
Despite all the talk of getting down to business, it took the nationalists nearly seven hours to get to Saturday's matter at hand: selecting leaders who will set the course for the AfD's stated goal of being "ready to govern" by Germany's next federal elections, in 2021.
Before it could get on to the leadership vote, the "more mature" AfD did what it has done since the party's infancy in 2013: divide into competing camps on nearly every issue.
First came party member Björn Höcke, by now infamous for his statements about Berlin's Holocaust memorial, to criticize the AfD's leadership, only to be shouted down by louder voices from the podium. Then the party voted by an extremely narrow margin — 51 percent to 49 — to maintain its double-pronged leadership, all but ensuring that its tradition of contentious infighting continues.
Protests greet party
The AfD certainly likes to cloak its attacks on the status quo in the terms of emancipation — "dare more democracy," the slogan goes — but the streets of the cities where the party has convened speak volumes about how divisive its politics are for Germany, which has not had a far-right party in parliament since the aftermath of World War II.
As at the AfD's convention in Cologne in spring, thousands of police officers came from all over the country to set up barricades around the nationalists to keep out the more than 6,000 demonstrators who sought to voice their opposition to pronouncements such as "Islam does not belong in Germany," such policy proposals as the immediate repatriation of Syrian refugees, and the AfD's general repudiation of multiculturalism.
"No one gets to dictate from on high what it means to be German," said Paula Rahaus, a spokeswoman for the youth wing of the Greens, one of the groups behind Saturday's protest.
"We want to stop them from spreading their antisocial politics," Rahaus said.
Police put great effort into suppressing the 6,500 people who protested against the AfDImage: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
'Undermining our democracy'
Many protesters were up long before dawn and already demonstrating by 6 a.m. as they attempted to prevent the convention from even starting. Braving freezing temperatures, barbed-wire fences and police in riot gear, thousands took to the streets, chanting "Piss off Nazis — no one will miss you" and carrying signs in support of religious pluralism.
The protests took on many shapes and sizes, in some cases turning violent as sporadic clashes broke out between demonstrators and security services. Police employed water cannons in the frigid early morning against a number of left-wing protesters, and one young man had his leg broken in the fracas.
"They are not a normal party," one young protester said when asked whether he thought the AfD had the right to hold conventions as Germany's other parties do. "They are undermining our democracy."
Whether the AfD actively seeks to dismantle certain democratic structures a la Viktor Orban in Hungary or the Law and Justice party in Poland remains to be seen. As it is, there is little that the party could do to stand in the way of a majority government — whenever one eventually materializes.
But for all the AfD's rejection of the status quo, by the end of Saturday the party had chosen to stay the ethnonationalist course that has brought it so much success, electing Meuthen and then continuing to debate, much longer than planned, who would be his co-leader before eventually choosing to re-elect current co-chair Alexander Gauland to his post.
Protesters, police clash as far-right Alternative for Germany picks new leaders
Several people have been injured during clashes between police and activists protesting against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party conference in Hanover. Authorities used water cannons against the protesters.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Protests turn violent
The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party conference was delayed for several hours on Saturday due to protests in the city of Hanover. Police used water cannons to disperse several hundred left-wing and anti-capitalism protesters, with TV footage showing authorities carrying away demonstrators. AfD lawmaker Kay Gottschalk said he was injured by protesters, according to dpa news agency.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Left-wing movements gather
Members of the anti-fascist movement Antifa, which has seen a recent resurgence after the rise of US President Donald Trump, were among people from many groups that attended protests, including several trade unions. Gathered under the banner "Our Hanover - colorful and in solidarity," about 6,500 participants rallied on Saturday.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. C. Dittrich
Anti-AfD protests begin early
Left-wing and anti-capitalism protests in Hanover began on Friday evening, a day ahead of the AfD's party conference. Authorities said those rallies went ahead mostly peacefully. On Saturday, however, the scale was far larger, as thousands more gathered from 6 a.m. (0500 UTC) to march towards Hanover's city center.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. von Ditfurth
Protesters and police scuffles
As protest groups approached the city center, demonstrators planned to obstruct road access to the Hanover Conference Center, where the AfD was holding its party conference. Officials reported that both police and protesters had been injured in confrontations. One protester, who was chained to a barrier, broke a leg while being dragged away by police.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Police fire water cannons in near-freezing temperatures
As a number of protesters continued attempts to occupy the streets around the conference center. Police resorted to firing water cannons in a bid to disperse the crowds, despite December temperatures being close to freezing. Authorities reportedly also carried pepper spray and battons.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
AfD officials closely guarded
As protesters rallied in Hanover's city center, authorities raised barriers and rolled out barbed wire around all nearby roads leading to the conference center. Such a strong emphasis on security is virtually unprecedented for a party conference and says a lot about the nature of the AfD's divisive politics.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Out in force, whatever the temperature
Despite the freezing temperatures, peaceful protesters continued to rally in full force throughout the day. "No one can dictate what it means to be German. We got rid of the far-right after World War II. We can do it again" one young demonstrator told DW's Elizabeth Schumacher.
Image: DW/E. Schumacher
From clashes on the streets, to potential party in-fighting
The AfD, holding its first party conference since being voted into the Bundestag, is electing new leaders. Members will decide whether hardliners lead the AfD further to the right or if relative moderates position the anti-immigration party as what they call traditionally conservative.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. C. Dittrich
Picking new leaders
The 8,500 AfD delegates voted against a proposal to do away with the two-leader system in the party. On Saturday, Joerg Meuthen was elected for two more years as the AfD's co-chair. The 56-year-old received 72 percent of votes. Alexander Gauland was chosen as the AfD co-leader with 68 per cent of the vote.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
'Patriotic course'
In his opening speech, Meuthen accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of "failing the country" and called for a "patriotic course." Despite his free-market liberal background, Meuthen is popular with the AfD's supporters.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
Giving a new twist to 'We can do it'
"There are people in this country who don't only say 'We can do this' but who actually manage to do something," Meuthen told delegates, apparently in a reference to Merkel's "Wir schaffen das" (We can do it) message to those who were skeptical about Germany's ability to deal with a record influx of migrants in 2015.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
Uncertain times
Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has turned to the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) after her efforts to form a coalition government with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) failed last month. The AfD is hoping to capitalize on the political uncertainty in Germany.
