The city of Giessen in the German State of Hesse is on high alert as it prepares to host the founding congress of a new youth wing for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Authorities are deploying one of the largest police operations in recent history for the event over the weekend of November 29-30.
Up to 6,000 officers from across Germany and the federal police will secure the Hessenhallen exhibition centre for the meeting. Tens of thousands of counter-demonstrators will also gather there, intent on disrupting proceedings, news broadcaster Tagesschau reported.
The congress, set to be attended by around 1,000 AfD youth members, aims to establish “Generation Deutschland”. That is a rebranded successor to the dissolved Junge Alternative (JA), which was classified as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organisation by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) earlier this year.
The JA disbanded in March following a party decision to tighten control and distance itself from related scandals, including extremist affiliations.
AfD leaders envision the new group as more professional and closely aligned with the party, complete with a statute, elected board, name and logo – potentially featuring a modified imperial eagle.
Opposition has been fierce and multifaceted. More than 20 counter-demonstrations have been registered, with police estimating up to 40,000 participants flooding the streets – almost half Giessen’s population of 95,000.
Leading the charge is the nationwide “Widersetzen” alliance, a coalition of so-called anti-fascist groups, trades unions, climate activists and Left Party affiliates. It has chartered 200 buses to transport protesters from across the country.
The group’s strategy includes blocking access roads to the venue through mass civil disobedience and framing the congress as an attempt to “breed a new generation of violent fascists”.
Additional rallies are planned by the Middle Hesse branch of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) and the Die Linke party, claiming to stand for democracy, diversity and solidarity, while branding the AfD youth as “clearly anti-democratic”.
Tensions have escalated with threats of violence.
A Swiss-based Antifa website has called to “set Giessen ablaze”, prompting police to prepare water cannons, helicopters, armoured vehicles, mounted units and sniffer dogs.
Hessian interior minister Roman Poseck of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) condemned such rhetoric, urging peaceful protesters to distance themselves from “violence-prone left-wing scenes”.
“Violence is never a legitimate means in democracy,” he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“Every perpetrator is an enemy of our democracy, whether left or right. We must not allow the extreme margins to face each other increasingly violently.”
Past AfD events, such as a January 2025 congress in Riesa, saw road blockades delay proceedings by two hours and result in clashes, injuring dozens of officers.
In Essen last year, 28 police were hurt amid similar disruptions organised by left-wing agitators.
Giessen city authorities have imposed restrictions, relocating protests across the Lahn River and cordoning off the venue neighbourhood for safety, citing inadequate escape routes.
Critics argue it creates a de facto “no-protest zone”, infringing on assembly rights.
Giessen’s Greens party Mayor Dieter Vogel justified the measures as protecting public safety, while affirming the AfD’s right to assemble in the absence of any ban.
Antifa and other left-wing extremists have threatened the private trade fair company that has rented its halls to the AfD. Staff and management published an open letter, calling for help after the fierce backlash from the left-wingers, Bild reported.
“All approved parties must be treated equally, regardless of their political orientation,” the company said on its homepage.
“In relation to the freedom of assembly guaranteed by the Basic Law, the entrepreneurial freedom of contract takes a back seat, and the company must provide the AfD with premises on the exhibition grounds, just as it has done for other parties in the past.”
Schools will close early on November 28 and traffic disruptions are anticipated citywide.
The city emphasises it will not be “locked down” on weekends but will remain accessible on foot, by bike and partly also by bus.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel decried what she called the “State-funded hate mob” forcing such extremes, labelling it an assault on democratic processes.
