Thousands protest as Germany’s far-right AfD to launch new youth wing

Party hopes to exert greater control over new group after the previous youth party was declared a proven right-wing extremist group by authorities and dissolved

GIESSEN, Germany — Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the western German city of Giessen on Saturday as the far-right Alternative for Germany’s new youth organization was set to kick off its founding convention.

Groups of protesters blocked or tried to block roads in and around the city of some 93,000 people in the early morning. Police said they used pepper spray after stones were thrown at officers at one location.

The new youth organization of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is to be set up in a meeting at Giessen’s convention center. Its predecessor, the Young Alternative — a largely autonomous group with relatively loose links to the party — was dissolved at the end of March after AfD decided to formally cut ties with it.

The meeting in Giessen was expected to start at around 10 a.m. and will see AfD delegates gather to choose the new youth wing’s leaders, statutes, name and logo.

AfD wants to have closer oversight over the new group, expected to be called Generation Germany. The party finished second in Germany’s national election in February with over 20% of the vote and is now the country’s biggest opposition party. It has continued to rise in polls as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government has failed to impress voters.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency had concluded that the Young Alternative was a proven right-wing extremist group. It later classified AfD itself as such a group, but suspended the designation after AfD launched a legal challenge.

The Young Alternative had frequently been involved in controversies, including its members using racist chants and holding meetings with neo-Nazis.

It’s typical for German parties to have youth wings, which are generally more politically radical than the parties themselves.

AfD portrays itself as an anti-establishment force at a time of low trust in politicians. It first entered the national parliament in 2017 on the back of discontent with the arrival of large numbers of migrants in the mid-2010s, and curbing migration remains its signature theme. But it has shown a talent for capitalizing on discontent about other issues too in recent years.

The new youth group’s members will decide whether to adopt a suggested logo bearing an eagle, a cross and Germany’s national colors black, red and gold.

Its likely first leader will be Jean-Pascal Hohm, 28, an AfD state lawmaker from eastern Germany with long-standing ties to various far-right and ethno-nationalist groups.

Opponents of the AfD including an alliance of anti-fascists as well as political, religious and labor groups plan to hold various counter-events from early on Saturday morning using slogans such as “Resist” and the motto “Together for Democracy and Diversity.”

One woman who plans to demonstrate, Anna Walldorf, 29, said she wants to travel to her hometown of Giessen by train from Frankfurt “to prove that there aren’t only negative things” there.

The young woman told AFP she believes that democracy “can no longer be taken for granted, and that it’s time to send a strong message.”

Political observers expect the new youth wing to be at least as radical as the Young Alternative.

Fabian Virchow, of the University of Düsseldorf, said that “the leading figures come from a far-right milieu, in which former activists from the Identarian Movement, fraternities, neo-Nazism and ethno-nationalist groups come together.”

While the Young Alternative operated as a registered association relatively free of the parent party, its successor is set to be more closely integrated into the AfD and subject to its disciplinary structures.

Stefan Marschall, of Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, said the new set-up “gives the party leadership control over this branch of the organization and thus helps it to present a more unified front.

“However, this comes at the cost of the party no longer being able to completely credibly distance itself from the youth organization should it adopt problematic positions.”

The youth wing is expected to assert its independence on day one.

One motion to be voted on says “the new youth organization should neither blindly follow the parent party nor serve as a lapdog for the federal or state executive committees of the parent party.”