2023-07-29 21:10:12
© Reuters.
MAGDEBURG, Germany (Reuters) – Thousands of people took to the streets to protest the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Friday and Saturday as the party holds a convention to choose its candidates for next European parliamentary elections. year.
Protesters outside the conference venue in the city of Magdeburg held up signs with messages such as “Unite against right-wing hatred” and “Nazis out”.
With 22% of voting intentions in the polls, behind the opposition Conservatives, the AfD denies being a Nazi party. Analysts say the party is playing on voters’ fears about recession, immigration and the ecological transition.
Last month, the AfD won a vote for district leader for the first time and is on track to win three state elections in eastern Germany. Its growth has drawn concern from the domestic intelligence service about extremism.
“Germany has understood that the right is the future,” AfD leader Alice Weidel told Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Saturday. “The voices are getting louder.”
The AfD says its vision of Europe is one of “sovereign nations rather than an EU superstate” and wants “free citizens rather than paternalistic and bureaucratic control”.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez and Oliver Denzer)
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