Clashes between police and demonstrators – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

A large group of demonstrators tried early on Saturday morning to break through barricades that the police have set up at the exhibition hall in the city of Essen, where the national meeting is being held. The police used pepper spray and batons to hold them back, says a spokeswoman for the police. “Several protesters and some with masked faces attacked the security forces. Several were arrested”, writes the local police on X, according to the news agency AFP. The far-right party Alternative for Germany, AfD, meets for a national convention after the party received a record turnout in the EU elections. The AfD received 15.9 percent of the vote gross of several scandals in the run-up to the election. The party received more votes than Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, SPD. About 600 AfD politicians are scheduled to attend the national meeting. The party’s two current leaders, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, want re-election. At the same time, there are around 80,000-100,000 demonstrators in the city in connection with the meeting. Someone will probably try to block the entrance to prevent the AfD’s delegates from getting into the exhibition hall. Several delegates from Afd are escorted to the national meeting by the police. Photo: Henning Kaiser / AP Several delegates were picked up by the police at the hotel and taken to the exhibition hall, according to the German news agency dpa, writes AP. The party’s leader, Weidel, told the delegates during the opening speech that “what is happening out there has nothing to do with democracy”. Thousands of police officers are deployed in the streets. An official source has warned that “possible violent far-left troublemakers” could be among the protesters. One of the leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Alice Weidel, on the podium at the national meeting in Essen. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / AP Exclusion Alternative for Germany has struggled with several scandals recently. Maximilian Krah was originally the party’s first candidate for the EU Parliament, but was banned from the party’s delegation. He has been investigated for having received money from sources in Russia and China, writes DW. In addition, one of his associates was arrested on suspicion of spying for China. Krah denies having done anything wrong. He has also made statements that have been perceived as support for the Nazis. – Not everyone who wore an SS uniform during the war “is automatically a criminal”, Krah told an Italian newspaper. The statements led, among other things, to the AfD being banned from the far-right grouping Identity and Democracy (ID) in the EU parliament. Despite the fact that the AfD has banned its controversial leader Maximilian Krah from the party’s parliamentary delegation, they are thus kept out in the cold. Published 29.06.2024, at 14.50 Updated 29.06.2024, at 15.15



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