The Alternative for Germany (AfD) federal party conference in Erfurt began punctually on Saturday morning, with over 500 of the 600 delegates already inside the convention hall by 7:30 a.m., according to party officials. This occurred despite thousands of protesters attempting to blockade access routes, including a section of the A71 motorway, and German police reporting around 20,000 demonstrators in the city. Security forces, reinforced by units from across the country, had used buses to escort delegates past the blockades before dawn, ensuring the quorum was met.

Protest organizers from the Widersetzen coalition stated they aimed to prevent the conference, arguing that the AfD represents a resurgence of fascism. Police reported that while most demonstrations were peaceful, a group of several hundred masked individuals broke away, leading to brief clashes in which officers used tear gas and batons. An AfD constituency office and police were attacked with pyrotechnics and paint bags. The city of Erfurt had sought to ban demonstrations on certain streets, but a legal dispute over the restrictions continued through the morning.

Inside the hall, the party leadership moved to defuse a potentially divisive debate. A motion by Thuringian state leader Björn Höcke to revise the party’s incompatibility list—which would have redefined what constitutes extremism and explicitly targeted the Green Party—was shelved after co-leader Alice Weidel proposed that the federal board would review the list within a year. Höcke, in his welcoming speech, spoke of healing Germany’s “broken identity” and making the country “great again.” Separately, the party’s youth wing, Generation Deutschland, sought to secure seats on key internal committees, a move seen by analysts in Berlin as an effort by the Weidel-aligned group to shape the party’s programmatic direction.

Viewed from Berlin, the conference consolidates the AfD’s position as it leads national opinion polls with up to 29 percent, ahead of the conservative CDU/CSU, and ahead of state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where it hopes to become the largest party. Mainstream parties maintain a “firewall” of non-cooperation. The domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, had previously classified the party as a suspected extremist case, though a court injunction suspended that classification earlier this year. The agency continues to monitor the youth wing, noting continuity with its predecessor, which was designated as “confirmed right-wing extremist.” The party conference is expected to re-elect Weidel and Tino Chrupalla as co-leaders, with results to be announced on Sunday.