Thousands protest against far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party convention in Essen, following the parties successful European election performance.
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00:00The far-right Alternative for Germany party faced thousands of protesters in the western
00:06German city of Essen as it hosted a weekend convention.
00:10Re-elected party leader Alice Weidel said the northern European country was in desperate
00:15need for a political shake-up.
00:17Germany needs a second 1989-1990.
00:24Party membership has grown significantly since 2023, AFD officials said.
00:29This support tracks with recent European parliamentary election results showing the
00:34political group garnered the second-highest amount of German votes.
00:38AFD polled well ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats.
00:42I believe that not everything has been done correctly from all the parties, from all democratic
00:48parties, but we have to show that we work together.
00:51The problems are so complex when it comes to migration and climate change and poverty
00:56that people just believe the easy answer, but the answers aren't very easy most of
01:01the times.
01:02This conference is so controversial that the city tried to stop it.
01:06It tried to cancel the rental contract for the building where the conference is taking
01:09place saying it was concerned that criminal offences could happen, such as the use of
01:14Nazi slogans.
01:15But the AFD sued and won.
01:18The protest reached fever pitch when several demonstrators tried to block roads and clashed
01:24with police, with several officers injured, according to local authorities.
01:30Although the AFD has made gains within European Parliament, the party has also been plagued
01:35by high-profile scandals and criminal allegations.
01:39Anti-AFD protest organisers believe their demonstrations are helping shift public opinion.
01:47We've seen that those protests that we've been organising here over the last six months
01:51have succeeded, and that's what we're here for, to convince them that there are other
01:55solutions than voting for the AFD.
01:58The AFD offers short-term solutions, but they do not think about the problems that come
02:02with that.
02:03They offer simple solutions that seem easy at the beginning, but if you think about it
02:07in the long term, they're not going to work.
02:11The next critical local German elections are due to be held in the country's east in September,
02:17a locale that has traditionally favoured AFD.