Mass protests, blockades against new AfD youth group

Large crowds in the central German town of Giessen on Saturday gathered to protest against the founding of a new youth organization by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), successfully delaying the start of the meeting.

Originally scheduled for 10 am (0900 GMT), the event was slow to get under way, with only about a quarter of the exhibition centre's 1,000-seat hall occupied.

Attendees travelling by car were largely unable to reach the venue, including Jean-Pascal Hohm, the designated chairman of the new youth organization and AfD co-leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, who were due to speak, according to party reports.

The AfD plans to establish a successor organization to the now disbanded Young Alternative (JA) called Generation Germany. 

The JA was dissolved following a party conference decision in March, after it was listed as extremist by the federal intelligence agency.

The new organization is to be led by Hohm, a politician from the state of Brandenburg, where the state-level domestic intelligence agency has listed him as a "confirmed right-wing extremist."

Police said groups of demonstrators were "massively" obstructing traffic on motorways and other roads around the town, including about 10 people who were abseiling onto a key motorway.

They have used water canons to help clear one blockade of about 2,000 people "after the group did not respond to the verbal request to clear the road."

A large group attempted to break through a police cordon at a substation outside Giessen. Emergency services prevented them from advancing further, but one officer was slightly injured in the process. Some police officers were pelted with stones.

Within the town, a bus with activists chained to it was used to block a roundabout as demonstrators began moving, according to a police spokeswoman, describing an "active situation with many different locations."

At a rally at the train station, protesters chanted "All together. Against fascism" and "Stop the arsonists" as they headed towards the town centre.

Authorities expect up to 50,000 participants at around 30 registered protests, rallies and vigils in the university town of some 90,000 inhabitants, a third of whom are students.

The police and interior minister of the state of Hesse, Roman Poseck, said earlier they were preparing for a "challenging large-scale situation" in Giessen.

Thousands of police officers from several federal states were on site, partly because calls for violence from the left-wing scene had been circulating in advance.

The Widersetzen (Resist) alliance said earlier that it would block access routes to the AfD meeting to prevent it from taking place.