Germany's Far-Right AfD Meets Behind Mass Protests

The Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country's main far-right party, opened a conference in Erfurt as large crowds protested outside. Euronews reported that around 20,000 people demonstrated. Police in Thuringia called the protest legitimate while reporting that an AfD constituency office and officers were attacked with paint and fireworks. Deutsche Welle reported that thousands marched and blocked roads across the city as the party gathered.

The confrontation reflects the tension in German politics, where the AfD has built durable support on opposition to immigration and to the established parties, while much of the public and the political mainstream mobilizes against it. The events in Erfurt are a local instance of a pattern visible across Europe, as parties on the nationalist right gain support and provoke organized resistance.

The political direction carries economic weight. A stronger nationalist right pushes European governments toward tighter migration rules and more skeptical positions on the European Union, energy policy and trade, all of which affect labor supply, public spending and the bloc's cohesion. Germany, as the region's largest economy, is where those pressures carry the most consequence.