Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party held its biennial national congress in Erfurt, a city in the eastern state of Thuringia, on Saturday, overwhelmingly reelecting its co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla despite massive protests outside the venue. Weidel secured 81% of the delegate vote, Chrupalla 70%, with both running unopposed. The conference proceeded on schedule after party officials ensured that 540 of roughly 600 delegates were inside the convention centre before dawn, outmanoeuvring protesters who had blockaded access roads since the early hours of the morning.

Around 31,000 people attended protest rallies according to police estimates, with organisers from the anti-fascist alliance Widersetzen — whose name means "resist" — claiming the figure exceeded 50,000. Demonstrators arrived from across Germany and Austria, including members of trade unions, civic organisations, and elected officials such as federal environment minister Carsten Schneider and Thuringia's interior minister Georg Maier. Protesters staged sit-in blockades, abseiled from a motorway bridge, and glued themselves to tram tracks in an effort to disrupt proceedings. Riot police, deployed in force with around 6,000 officers, used batons and pepper spray against protesters who broke through cordons. Two journalists were reportedly injured and hospitalised during the unrest, though police recorded no arrests by early afternoon. Authorities described the day as largely peaceful, with under 100 offences logged, mostly graffiti.

The congress attracted additional controversy by coinciding with the centennial of a 1925 Nazi Party rally held in nearby Weimar — the meeting at which Adolf Hitler introduced the Hitler salute and unveiled the Hitler Youth movement. Historians and political opponents called the timing a deliberate provocation; AfD dismissed those accusations as "compulsive weaponisation of history." At the podium, Chrupalla mocked the protesters, saying: "There are no peaceful seated blockades. There are no democratic roadblocks. These troublemakers are the last resort of our political rivals." Weidel described the demonstrations as antidemocratic and portrayed established parties as leading Germany toward ruin. During the congress, the party's social media channels played a song titled "Send Them Back," and cards bearing deportation slogans were reportedly distributed on the floor.

The scale of the protests nonetheless signals the depth of opposition to AfD's rise. The party finished second in February's federal election with 20.8% of the vote — the strongest result for a far-right party in Germany since the Second World War — and polling since then has placed it first nationally. Germany's domestic intelligence agency classified AfD as a "proven right-wing extremist organisation" last year, though a court suspended that designation pending a legal challenge. Mainstream parties maintain a "firewall" policy of refusing coalition partnerships with AfD.

All eyes are now turning to state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on 6 September, where AfD is targeting 40% or more of the vote — a result that could position it to govern alone at state level for the first time. Chrupalla told delegates: "We will win. Maybe we'll be able to govern alone soon." For protest organisers, the day's turnout — the largest mobilisation against an AfD congress to date, surpassing previous demonstrations in Giessen and Riesa — was evidence that civil society opposition to the party remains broad, organised, and, crucially, peaceful.