Opponents of the founding of a new youth organization of the AfD in Gießen, Hesse, gathered early Saturday morning for multiple demonstrations and street blockades. According to police reports, isolated incidents of violence also occurred. All major access routes to the venue, the Gießen Messe, were blocked, the protest alliance Widersetzen stated in its live updates. “16 blockades are cutting off the AfD on the way to the founding of their youth organization,” the alliance said. It estimated that more than 15,000 activists were on the streets.
Police stated via WhatsApp that state and federal roads as well as highways around Gießen were “heavily blocked,” warning that participants were endangering themselves and others “considerably.” They noted a blockade on federal road B429 and the A480 highway involving roughly 2,000 demonstrators. At a roundabout on the L3093, several people had chained themselves to a bus.
Additionally, around 500 people, who had broken away from a protest march, were pushing toward a police cordon near the Konrad-Adenauer Bridge, which connects Gießen’s city center with other districts, a police spokesperson told AFP.
Police further reported that officers were pelted with stones at one blockade, prompting the use of pepper spray. They also observed around 300 protesters carrying ignited flares and a larger group of masked individuals moving from the train station toward the city center.
Apart from the street blockades, the first protest gatherings had already begun early in the morning, attended by “several thousand” people, the police spokesperson said. The main demonstration was called for 8:00 a.m. by the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). The spokesperson noted a protest march with a participant number “in the lower five-figure range,” with more demonstrators continuing to join. Police deployed “a mid-four-figure number of officers,” both in uniform and plainclothes.
28-year-old Irina Gildt told AFP that she participated to make a statement in support of freedom of expression and diversity, and to show that she would not be intimidated “by fear, by hate.” She added, “Sometimes you just have to get up early for that.”
The AfD plans to launch its new youth organization in Gießen this weekend. The frontrunner for the chair is Brandenburg state parliament member Jean-Pascal Hohm, who is associated with the far-right wing of the AfD, and whose state association is considered demonstrably extremist. The party’s previous youth organization, Junge Alternative, dissolved earlier this year after the AfD severed ties with it.
Due to massive protests, the start of the founding meeting of the new AfD youth organization in Giessen, Hesse, was significantly delayed. The event, scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday in the city's exhibition halls, could not proceed as planned, as a large portion of the 1,000 registered members were still en route.
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